A four-tiered hierarchy in a converged fixed-mobile architecture, enabling personal networks

We present a new way of capturing the future technical infrastructure of a converged fixed-mobile infrastructure by means of a four-tiered hierarchy of one fixed and three different mobile and wireless (access) layers. With such a view, the current range of heterogeneous interconnected public and private networks can be easily modelled as a landscape of pockets (the mobile/wireless networks) with various depths and widths, connected by a drainage of high capacity (the fixed network) in which marbles (information) find their way. The metaphor clearly illustrates that higher demand for mobility will increase the need for a densely distributed high-capacity fixed access network. It also shows the high potential of the relatively new concept of personal networking. In the light of this model, we describe crucial technologies for fixed-mobile convergence, such as handover, roaming, and gateways. Summarising, we believe that our contribution in this paper could prove to be a helpful guideline to the telecom industry both from a strategic and operational perspective.