AN OVERVIEW OF UMTS AND WIMAX NETWORKS INTEGRATION

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the network integration of UMTS (Universal Mobile TelecommunicationSystem) with WiMAX (Wordwide Interoperability of Microwave Access). A few proposed interworking solutionsand seamless integration of both networks are explained. The best architecture and key procedures that will enablethe integration both networks and handover mechanism for the seamless mobility are presented. Considering thetrend of the current network evolution, which is the convergence between the telecommunications and broadcastworlds, an integration of mobile WiMAX with present 2G, 2.5G or 3G accesses into a homogeneous architecturegoes a long way to achieve the reality of mobile broadband networks. With the advent of mobile WiMAX, a mobilebroadband wireless access solution and based on all-IP (Internet Protocol) based OFDMA (Orthogonal FrequencyDivision Multiple Access) technology, an UMTS-WiMAX