403 BRENTA - Supporting Mobility and Quality of Service for Adaptable Multimedia Communication Andreas Kassler 1 , Louise Burness 2 , Piyush Khengar 3 ; Ernö Kovacs 4 , Davide Mandato 5 , Jukka Manner 6 , Georg Neureiter 7 , Tomàs Robles 8 , Hector Velayos 9 1 University of Ulm, Germany, email: kassler@informatik.uni-ulm.de 2 BT, England, email: louise.burness@bt.com 3 King's College, London, England, email: piyush.khengar@kcl.ac.uk 4 Sony International (Europe) GmbH, Germany, email:kovacs@sony.de 5 Sony International (Europe) GmbH, Germany, email: mandato@sony.de 6 University of Helsinki, Finnland, email: jmanner@cs.Helsinki.fi 7 T-Nova Innovationsgesellschaft GmbH, Germany, email: Georg.Neureiter@telekom.de 8 University of Madrid, Spain, email: robles@dit.upm.es 9 Agora Systems, Spain, email: hector_velayos@agora-systems.com Abstract: Wireless broadband networking provides new challenges and benefits for applications. As the wireless link is always unreliable and interworking with other networking technologies is required, adaptable applications are a must to support Quality of Service (QoS) towards the user. There are several ways to provide this adaptability. An ideal endsystem architecture has to be flexible enough to support all kinds of adaptation mechanisms. Within this paper we focus on the requirements that are imposed on such an endsystem architecture. Based on these we build a flexible, layered architecture that provides a QoS and mobility enabled transport interface for higher components/protocols. The component model we introduce is inherently designed to support adaptable multimedia services with built-in QoS and mobility support. We believe that such an architecture is the first step towards an integrated QoS and mobility management system that can be used for next generation multimedia applications. 1. Introduction The main objective of the BRAIN (Broadband Radio Access for IP Based Networks) project is to propose a system architecture that combines broadband radio access technology based on the HiperLan 2 standard, with other wireless access network technologies (like UMTS), to enable full coverage of seamless IP-based services for users in hot spot areas and on the move. High quality communication is achieved by providing different connection types, and using a suitable frequency band with an available bandwidth of up to 20 Mbit/s. Mobility for Mobile Terminals (MT) is supported by building a scalable architecture based on the concept of BRAIN Access Routers (BAR) attached to a BRAIN IP based access network (BAN) which is connected to the core network using a BRAIN Mobility Gateway (BMG). Fixed network services will also be made available for mobile users with comparable Quality of Service (QoS). BRAIN will support not only current IP based services and applications. In addition to enabling broadband wireless and mobile access to the Internet, the BRAIN network will also support QoS enabled applications and services. The combination of broadband wireless access and the support of mobility and QoS will enable new kind of applications that benefit from this synergy. As an example, with BRAIN technology it will be possible to achieve high quality video and audio wireless transmission using IP services, with support for QoS in all BRAIN elements. In general, BRAIN emphasises the combination of high bandwidth, low delay and guaranteed QoS - one best suited for demanding multimedia applications. Based on this technological development, new business opportunities will become available and improved for manufacturers, network operators and content providers. People on the move will be able