Enhancing heterogeneous mobile network management based on a well-founded reference ontology

Abstract

The fulfillment of the Always Best Connected & Served concept in future mobile wireless networks depends on their ability to maintain a seamless association between the user’s equipment and the network. As a result, many researchers and developers have proposed several decision-support mechanisms to cope with this challenge. One of the promising mechanisms to aid mobile wireless networks in achieving ubiquitous coverage with a seamless connection is semantic reasoning. However, once it relies on ontologies, proper representation of Link and Connection – entities that bind the communication nodes – is paramount. Unfortunately, although several network-related ontologies present these concepts, they are unclear on which entities they bind, nor do they present them simultaneously. Also, the same ambiguity can be perceived in vocabulary recommendations of several telecommunication standard bodies. Our main contribution is the ontological analysis that clarifies the definition of Link and Connection in telecommunication domain. Besides, we analyze their dependencies while refining other concepts such as Medium, Server, and Neighbor. Thus, we provide the foundations for a new network-related ontology to support mobility management in wireless networks.