RIMA: Router for Integrated Mobile Access

Next generation wireless networks will rely heavily on packet transport for both data and voice services. In this paper, we describe the Router for Integrated Mobile Access (RIMA) system, which is the core network element of an integrated wireless packet network. RIMA acts as a Mobile Switching Center for standard cellular telephony users, and a mobile router for wireless packet data users. RIMA includes a novel call processing system that supports several types of telephony services, and a new IP mobility protocol, called HAWAII, that efficiently manages the IP mobility of data and packet voice users. In this paper, we discuss issues with providing wireless packet service, present a network architecture based on RIMA to address those issues, and describe a research prototype of the system