Mobility model for hybrid WLAN/cellular systems

Wireless communications and networking have had tremendous developments in recent years. Recently, some proposals are presented in the literature to build hybrid structures out of different wireless systems. Also, architectures have been proposed for co-operating cellular and WLAN systems. Due to high complexity of mobile networks, proposed protocols and algorithms are usually evaluated by simulations. In these simulations, when real mobility is considered, a certain mobility model must be used. A number of mobility models have been proposed for ad hoc networks. Different mobility models have different properties in terms of node distribution, stability and reality. In a cellular system, hotspots are locations with a large number of subscribers. In hybrid WLAN/Cellular systems, WLANs are used to cover the hotspots. Evaluation of the performance of these hybrid networks should be performed through simulations or analytical modeling. Therefore, special mobility models are needed for this purpose. In this paper, we propose a mobility model based on the original version of random waypoint. This model is applicable for the simulating of the hybrid WLAN/Cellular systems. The proposed strategy is analyzed through simulations and analytical modeling. © 2006 JD.