Intelligent middle-ware architecture for mobile networks
Résumé
Recent advances in electronic and automotive industries as well as in wireless telecommunication technologies have drawn a new picture where each vehicle became fully networked. Multiple stake-holders (network operators, drivers, car manufacturers, service providers, etc.) will participate in this emerging market, which could grow following various models. To free the market from technical constraints, it is important to return to the basics of the Internet, i.e., providing embarked devices with a fully operational Internet connectivity (IPv6). A new device, the Mobile Router (MR), will take place in vehicle to manage mobility and take advantages of the surrounding wireless technology diversity to offer seamless IP connectivity to on-board devices. It has to take into account various constraints, in its decision regarding the management of wireless network interfaces and the routing of the flows. These constraints are many-fold. They could be technical, depend on the environment of the MR or on the flow characteristics. They also have to respect usage policies provided by stake-holders. This leads to the necessity to design a middle-ware able to gather all kind of information and requirements and to provide the routing engine (at the network layer) with a comprehensive set of elementary rules. This article presents a MR architecture and show how such a middle-ware could make decisions which are context aware and policies aware while allowing a comprehensive resource management.