Analysis and Design of Advanced Multiservice Networks Supporting Mobility, Multimedia, and Internetworking

This book constitutes the Final Report of COST Action 279, Analysis and DesignofAdvancedMultiserviceNetworkssupportingMultimedia,Mobility, andInterworking, a guided tour of the state-of-the-art work on diverse aspects of modern telecommunications networks design developed within this Action during the four years of its operation, started on July 1, 2001, and ended on June 30, 2005. As stated in its founding charter, its Memorandum of Understanding, the work area of COST 279 is the analysis, design, and control aspects of prese- day networks-quite a wide scope. Behind the unifying fac ,ade put on by the Internet Protocol (IP) network layer, todays networks hide a mess of hete- geneity: heterogeneity at the level of applications, both concerning the traf?c they produce and the network Quality of Service (QoS) they require, and h- erogeneity at the level of network component subsystems, in particular an - creasingly important mobile/wireless access segment.
A common ground for the treatment of this disparate set of topics was given by the strong meth- ological component contained in the approach followed in COST 279, with importance placed on the development and application, whenever possible, of analytical techniques and models for the mathematical understanding of the systems under study. The results expected from the Action ranged thus from mathematical models and algorithms as entities of own interest to the und- standing of systembehavior via their application.