A Semantic and Knowledge-Based Approach for Handover Management

Fulvio Yesid Vivas,Oscar Mauricio Caicedo,Juan Carlos Nieves

doi:10.3390/s21124234

Fulvio Yesid Vivas, Oscar Mauricio Caicedo + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s21124234

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Abstract

Handover Management (HM) is pivotal for providing service continuity, enormous reliability and extreme-low latency, and meeting sky-high data rates, in wireless communications. Current HM approaches based on a single criterion may lead to unnecessary and frequent handovers due to a partial network view that is constrained to information about link quality. In turn, HM approaches based on multicriteria may present a failure of handovers and wrong network selection, decreasing the throughput and increasing the packet loss in the network. This paper proposes SIM-Know, an approach for improving HM. SIM-Know improves HM by including a Semantic Information Model (SIM) that enables context-aware and multicriteria handover decisions. SIM-Know also introduces a SIM-based distributed Knowledge Base Profile (KBP) that provides local and global intelligence to make contextual and proactive handover decisions. We evaluated SIM-Know in an emulated wireless network. When the end-user device moves at low and moderate speeds, the results show that our approach outperforms the Signal Strong First (SSF, single criterion approach) and behaves similarly to the Analytic Hierarchy Process combined with the Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (AHP-TOPSIS, multicriteria approach) regarding the number of handovers and the number of throughput drops. SSF outperforms SIM-Know and AHP-TOPSIS regarding the handover latency metric because SSF runs a straightforward process for making handover decisions. At high speeds, SIM-Know outperforms SSF and AHP-TOPSIS regarding the number of handovers and the number of throughput drops and, further, improves the throughput, delay, jitter, and packet loss in the network. Considering the obtained results, we conclude that SIM-Know is a practical and attractive solution for cognitive HM.

Highlights

Handover Management (HM) is responsible for making networkconnection decisions in a timely manner [1,2]
When the end-user device moves at low and moderate speeds, the results show that our approach outperforms Signal Strong First (SSF) and behaves to the Analytic Hierarchy Process combined with the Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (AHP-TOPSIS, a multicriteria approach), regarding the number of handovers and the number of throughput drops
SSF outperforms Semantic Information Model (SIM)-Know and AHP-TOPSIS regarding the handover latency metric because SSF runs a straightforward process for making handover decisions

Summary

Introduction

Handover Management (HM) is responsible for making network (dis)connection decisions in a timely manner [1,2]. In this sense, HM is pivotal for providing service continuity, enormous reliability and extreme-low latency, and meeting sky-high data rates, in current and upcoming wireless communications [3,4]. We find two types of approaches that address HM, namely, single criterion-based and multicriteria-based. Approaches based on a single criterion, such as the Signal Strong First (SSF), usually consider only the link quality in the end-user device for carrying out handovers. SSF compares the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of available networks and selects the network with the highest signal [9]

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Results

Conclusion