Heterogeneous Networking: An Enabling Paradigm for Ubiquitous Wireless Communications [Point of View]

It is a widely accepted notion that the long-term aim of the technological progress in the field of wireless communications is constituted by the provision of ubiquitous connectivity between individuals, as well as a multiplicity of existing and future pervasive devices which increasingly permeate our environment. In this context the currently dominant cellular (a combination of metropolitan, local, and personal area networks-MANs, LANs, and PANs, respectively), as well as the emerging mobile ad hoc network (MANET) architectures constitute the two major contenders for the role of systemic paradigm, which would facilitate the realization of ubiquitous wireless networking. Against this background, we would like to maintain that in order to achieve the required level of integration, performance and efficiency, the future telecommunications technology may have to infer cues from the structural characteristics of the human society itself. Correspondingly, in this paper we would like to consider some of the relevant aspects of the societal constitution, which may hold crucial clues to identifying the promising avenues towards further technological advancement. More specifically, in this paper we explore the principle of heterogeneous wireless networking, constituted by the fusion of classic cellular and ad hoc network topologies. Specifically, we would like to maintain, that the heterogeneous network inherits the vital complementary characteristics of both aforementioned architectures, and thus has the potential of attaining the levels of performance and efficiency required by the future wireless communications.