An Integrated UMTS-WLAN Testbed

The provision of next generation mobile wireless access necessitates the coexistence of legacy cellular systems and new air interface technologies in cooperative heterogeneous environments. These multi-system environments consist of a number of radio access networks with different radio access technologies such as WiMax, GERAN, UMTS and WLAN. Joint radio resource management strategies are responsible for managing the pool of radio resources and are crucial to guarantee optimal cooperation between network sub-systems. The testing and validation of these strategies demands the construction of robust heterogeneous testbeds on which joint RRM algorithms can be trialled and evaluated. This paper presents an overview of the software/hardware design of the testbed and a description of joint radio resource management strategies being employed to manage RRM across UMTS and WLAN.