An architecture supporting adaptation and evolution in fourth generation mobile communication systems

A major challenge for next generation mobile communication is capturing the system architecture's complexity with all its internal and external dependencies. Seamless integration of heterogeneous environments in all system parts is a key requirement. Moreover, future systems have to consider the different evolution cycles of individual system parts. Among those, services are expected to change the fastest. With respect to these considerations, we propose an overall architecture for next generation mobile communication systems. It covers all system parts from wireless transmission to applications including network and middleware platform. Our approach focuses on adaptability in terms of reconfigurability and programmability to support unanticipated system evolution. Therefore, we consider abstraction layers which consist of adaptable cooperating components grouped by open platforms rather than rigid system layers. In addition to that, we introduce cross-layer cooperation allowing an efficient use of the available resources. Specific scenarios illustrate the feasibility of our approach.