Mass market proliferation of mobile applications and devices has led to increased data traffic flowing across wireless broadband networks. With smartphone adoption and bandwidth-intensive services such as streaming video continuing to rise, resources of existing cellular networks are becoming increasingly constrained.
Wi-Fi is uniquely positioned to add to existing cellular network capacity, given its harmonized global spectrum allocation and widely adopted technology standard. Operators are already using Wi-Fi as an increasingly critical tool to meet capacity demands in standalone networks. To provide enhanced end user experience, improved Wi-Fi/cellular interworking is needed for carriers to provide ubiquitous mobile broadband access.
This white paper analyzes and makes recommendations on some of the main aspects of integration between Wi-Fi and cellular networks using Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) functionality.