A Framework for the Self-organization of Personal Networks

Personal network (PN) as a user centric enabler for future 4G wireless communications starts from the user and extends the user´s personal area network (PAN) to a global coverage of his personal devices and services in his home, car and office etc. as well as other foreign networks and services regardless of their geographical locations. Personal networks are dynamic in nature and consist of heterogeneous mobile devices and technologies. As a result, one of the main challenges in the development of personal networks is self-organization in order to be adaptive to the dynamics and heterogeneity of personal networks. A framework that consists of different self-organizing functions for personal networks is proposed in this paper. A cross layer function, context awareness, is discussed in details on how personal networks could make use of context information at various layers to facilitate self-organization.