Multicriteria Optimization of Access Selection to Improve the Quality of Experience in Heterogeneous Wireless Access Networks

Abstract

Wireless technology is a revolutionary advancement providing users with ubiquitous data and telephony access anywhere and anytime with no physical (PHY) connection. The currently deployed wireless networks like Wi-Fi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS), and Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems have different characteristics that make them complementary in terms of performance, coverage, and cost. This network variety presents an opportunity to provide better services to end users, given the advances in mobile terminals (MTs). To reach this goal, an appropriate automatic network selection (ANS) mechanism, which is able to always select the best access network, is needed. This consists of constantly monitoring any type of available access network, i.e., automatically selecting and switching to the best one, as the network that maximizes the users quality of experience, taking into account their preferences and the terminal and network conditions. ANS is a multidimensional decision-making problem that can be solved by finding an appropriate complex tradeoff between possibly conflicting criteria. In this paper, we propose an analytical model to capture the preferences of end users. Based on this model, we design an ANS mechanism that takes into account all aspects of the tradeoff between the quality of the connections, the preferences of the end users, and the cost. To highlight the benefits of our approach from the perspectives of both end users and network operators, we have implemented and tested the solution in a multitechnology simulator. Results show that the proposed solution outperforms mainstream approaches.