Multi-Access in Future Generations

Future wireless communication systems will be characterized by an integration of different access technologies. The evolution of multi-access solutions will provide seamless networks that embrace wide-area cellular, nomadic and other types of accesses at the same time. This situation demands for a user-friendly coordination of the complementary access technologies to access personalized services in a seamless manner by using the currently most suitable access. This paper describes some scenarios on the use of multi-access systems in the future. Moreover, requirements on and examples of multi-access systems are presented, followed by a description of the future generation multi-access architecture as under discussion within international fora.