ABSTRACT
Increasingly, wireless access becomes heterogeneous, consisting of cellular systems interspersed with IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) access and other access technologies (3G and beyond). This poses new challenges for delivering services to users who move about in such a heterogeneous infrastructure. Users of mobile communication can access services via multiple access networks with varying properties in terms of price, data rates, latency, error rates, etc. Multiple devices may be used
to interact with services, which further adds to the complexity faced by a user. Some of these devices will allow truly mobile access due to their form factor, function, etc. (e.g., mobile phones or mp3 players with wireless interfaces); therefore, to facilitate mobile communication, we must enable automatic rearrangement of communication, services, and interaction with services. New usage patterns are expected to emerge as a result of minimizing the effort required by users to arrange and manage their communication, services, and interaction.
