Abstract
In beyond 3G networks the user will not be aware of the access network technology used to provide a telecommunications service. Heterogeneous network technologies will be seamlessly integrated in one "common" access network, enabling users to move around and continuously receive their subscribed services. In a commercial environment, this network evolution requires that a telecommunications operator jointly manages its networks resources to improve the service offered to the users and, at the same time, to increase its revenue. Starting from the UMTS and WLAN interconnection architecture defined by 3GPP, this paper analyzes the performance of a new joint radio resource management strategy, comparing it with two well-known strategies used in scenarios where both networks, the UMTS and the WLAN, are interconnected. The new strategy presented in the paper bases its decisions on criteria related to user mobility characteristics and the application characteristics. The strategy also introduces the possibility of renegotiating new calls and reallocating running calls from one access network to another. The performance analysis considers two traffic scenarios. One where only real-time applications are running and other which also introduces TCP applications. The comparison studies show the proposed strategy outperforms the other strategies in what concerns call blocking probability and applications QoS support. Besides, the proposed strategy tends to reduce the handoffs between networks.

Abstract
Interconnection of different access network technologies is an important research topic in mobile telecommunications systems. In this paper, we propose an ns-3 architecture for simulating the interconnection of wireless local area network (WLAN) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). This architecture is based on the architecture proposed by the Third Generation Partnership Project, being the use of virtual interfaces as its main innovation. In order to demonstrate the value of the proposed simulation framework, we implemented the UMTS and WLAN interconnection considering three joint radio resource management strategies for distributing arriving calls. From the simulations results, we can conclude that the proposed simulation architecture is suitable to test and evaluate performance aspects related to the interconnection and joint management of UMTS and WLAN technologies. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract
Nowadays it's common to find the same place covered by multiple access networks. For that reason, mobile terminals are normally equipped with multiple network interfaces, which allow users to take advantage of the heterogeneity of those networks. This paper presents an architecture capable of using, in a simultaneous way, the multiple network interfaces existent in the mobile terminal for accessing a video streaming service. With this goal in mind, a solution on the session layer was developed, allowing the creation of an abstraction layer for the intervening applications. The purposed solution is composed by two modules, responsible for the division and aggregation of the transmitted data through multiple interfaces. The obtained results show that the developed architecture is not only capable of interconnecting two machines through multiple interfaces in a simultaneous way, but it is also capable of processing a video stream division in an intelligent way, accordingly to the network conditions. © 2012 University of Split.

Abstract

Abstract
Several developments have been observed recently in areas such as Web development, social networks, interface design, recommendation systems and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The integration of these developments can provide a superior experience, greater than the sum of their individual contributions, regarding user satisfaction. This paper proposes an integration of all these innovations in e-tourism, more specifically by the development of a Web based geographic information platform adaptable to any tourist region. As a case study, we also show how this platform was adapted to the Douro region, in Portugal. The Web platform developed as a proof of concept combines geospatial information from diverse and heterogeneous data sources, encompassing events, news, routes and points of interest (POI). This platform provides also a recommendation engine and features the possibility that users can contribute with content as part of the community, thus emerging a mini social network. © 2011 AISTI.