Admission Control in Wireless Networks

Efficient admission control and resource management schemes are required in the emerging wireless network architectures in order to maximize the utilization efficiency of the limited radio resources, while meeting the Quality of Service requirements of mobile users. In wireless networks the admission control process refers to the problem of determining whether or not to accept a user in the system, as well as of assigning to each mobile user and base station, the appropriate transmission powers, physical channels and required bandwidth. In this article the various processes associated with the admission control for both circuit switched and packet switched wireless networks are discussed, and specific mechanisms and algorithms that can be used to implement these processes are introduced. In addition, in order to balance the tradeoffs of the new call blocking and handoff call blocking according to the users' and system's requirements, various handoff priority-based mechanisms and their relation to admission control are discussed. Finally the role and operation of the admission control in the current and future wireless networking technologies is presented. Keywords: admission control; cellular networks; wireless networks; power control; channel assignment; resource allocation; handoff mechanisms