Connectivity and Access Provisioning with Ambient Networks

In future wireless systems using ambient networks technology the users will be able to use a multitude of networks at the same time. Frequent roaming between networks will be key characteristic of mobile services and the terms "home" and "visited" networks and providers will be common also at local and national level. The user will be able to access any network. Besides business and roaming agreements there are several other functions that need coordination to provide connectivity and access everywhere and any time. The attachment of a user with an access link is one such key consideration. The access attachment phase consists of several steps including access advertisement and discovery, evaluation, selection and activation. In this paper the ambient networks concepts are briefly introduced. Business relations, business agreements and value networks are described for different scenarios. Selected results of performance evaluation illustrate how operators and users can exploit the flexibility and benefits in access evaluation and selection among different access options and especially look at access evaluation and selection decision effects.