Multi-user Session Control in Next Generation Wireless Systems

Next generation IP wireless systems are envisioned to be heterogeneous and to provide ubiquitous services to mobile users with different quality of service requirements. Furthermore, in order to attract and keep customers, mobile operators are expanding their portfolio with the inclusion of publish-subscribe services, such as real-time multimedia sessions. This paper presents a signalling application layer based on the Next Steps in Signalling (NSIS) framework that aims to provide the control of sessions to multiple users across heterogeneous wireless systems, called Multi-user Session Control (MUSC). Supported by a session-aware signalling protocol, named MUSC-P, which is highlighted in this paper, MUSC controls the session quality of service mapping and adaptation, the ubiquitous access of mobile users to the available published sessions and the session connectivity between networks with different address realms. The protocol is detailed, its functionalities are presented, and an initial performance evaluation shows the protocol efficiency setup to multiple users