Evolution of QoS Control in Next Generation Mobile Networks

Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMNs) constitute the evolution of mobile network architectures towards a common IP based network. One of the main research topics in wireless networks architectures is QoS control and provisioning. Different approaches to this issue have been described. The introduction of the NGMNs is a major trend in telecommunications, but the heterogeneity of wireless accesses increases the challenges and complicates the design of QoS control and provisioning. This chapter provides an overview of the standard architectures for QoS control in Wireless networks (e.g. UMTS, WiFi, WiMAX, CDMA2000), as well as, the issues on this all-IP environment. It provides the state-of-the-art and the latest trends for converging networks to a common architecture. It also describes the challenges that appear in the design and deployment of QoS architectures for heterogeneous accesses and the available solutions. The Evolved Core from 3GPP is analyzed and described as a suitable and promising solution addressing these challenges.