Concept for universal access and connectivity in mobile radio networks

Mobile communications is characterized by a fast growing number of users and an increasingly heterogeneous data traffic due to emerging multimedia packet services. Likewise, users desire more mobility support, thus demanding permanent availability at any place and any speed. The conventional answer to this problem is building new wireless standards. But these standards require totally new hardware, users cannot use their old terminals, and no wireless communication among networks is possible which considerably constrains the availability demand. Instead, we propose a unified way for basic network access and connectivity maintenance. It is embodied by a perpetually available signalling channel-the network access and connectivity channel (NACCH) and a common functionality trunk, shared by several networks. With this concept, networks can communicate and, hence, form a mega-network where users have universal access and roaming support.