Integration of GPRS and Wireless LANs with Multimedia Applications

This paper presents a gateway approach for the integration of GPRS and wireless LANs (WLANs). The proposed architecture leverages Mobile IP as the mobility management protocol over WLANs. The interworking between GPRS and WLANs is achieved by a gateway which resides on the border of GPRS system. The design goal is to minimize the changes in GPRS and WLANs as that both systems are widely available in the markets already. By deploying the gateway, users can seamlessly roam among two systems. This paper also presents a testbed based on the architecture and design principles. Empirical experiments with multimedia applications are conducted to analyze the testbed performance in terms of handoff latency and throughput.