Access network discovery and selection in the future broadband wireless environment

The Future Broadband Wireless environment is characterized by the co-existence of a multitude of wireless networks e.g. LTE, UMTS, WiMAX, WiFi etc. In order to be able to offer the best connectivity, according to the requirements of the user and to the preferences of the operator, a novel functionality was introduced in the network and in the mobile devices for access network discovery and selection. This paper introduces this functionality as standardized in the 3GPP Evolved Packet Core (EPC), highlighting its main concepts and technical scenarios. Further a set of novel optimizations are evaluated, followed by the description of the Fraunhofer FOKUS OpenEPC implementation.