Control of autonomous multimode terminals in heterogeneous and independent wireless environments

Recent years have witnessed a massive evolution of mobile communications. Issues
related to the device mobility have been thoroughly addressed inside operators' domains, but
when no agreement between the network providers exists, changing the attached network still means breaking the session and relying on the application to recover the lost data. In parallel, it is hardly possible for a mobile user to control the connectivity of his terminal. The objective of this thesis is to present the concept of an innovative technological framework for the autonomous control of multimode terminals in heterogeneous and non-federated wireless environments. The aim is to enable a self-configuring terminal to connect and roam seamlessly across independent networks as long as it owns sufficient security credentials, while respecting its user's choices and preferences. The target scheme involves abstraction and cross-layer mechanisms. It takes into account constraints based on heterogeneous wireless systems, autonomous architectures and enables generic services such as smart access network selection, connectivity and session management. This scheme applies to the mobile terminal only, with mechanisms independent of the access network infrastructure. The thesis analyses how existing technologies are enhanced and combined with new features to achieve this objective and gives a description of the overall concept and of its implementation. A simulated model is used to assess the validity of the proposed framework. Diverse applications to real systems and projects that implemented the components of this framework are presented, highlighting the lightness, generality and key benefits of the concept.