A supernet: engineering traffic across network boundaries

Fourth generation networks lead to multiple distributed wireless networks, including cellular networks of different generations, frequencies and cell sizes; wireless LAN and PAN networks, and potentially satellite and other networks. Distributed operating systems has shown that distributing jobs across systems can lead to increased throughput, performance, modularity, survivability, and accessibility. Existing studies on hierarchical networks, integrated networks, and dual mode studies show how higher efficiency can be achieved by engineering traffic across networks. This study defines techniques that can be used to engineer traffic across networks, and reviews existing results for each method.