Vertical Handover Management Research Articles

User Preference-Based Heterogeneous Network Management System for Vertical Handover

Vertical handover management plays an essential role in wireless network technologies, mainly due to the rapid development of various radio access technologies (RATs) that require users to connect seamlessly from one RAT to another. However, in multiple RAT environments, vertical handover management encounters different challenges, including unnecessary handovers, handover failures, ping-pong handovers, and unsuitable access network selection. Essential in vertical handover management is maintaining the desired quality of service (QoS) by the mobile device user. The seamless movement of mobile device users as they run various applications depends on a well-performing vertical handover decision-making algorithm. This bears special significance in a heterogeneous network environment. This paper proposes a vertical handover algorithm that considers user preferences (i.e., a vertical handover algorithm that evaluates the application currently running on a user device). The main objective of the algorithm is to determine when it is necessary to perform the handover, depending on the applications running on the mobile device. The proposed algorithm utilizes a fuzzy logic system to assess whether the handover is necessary and a multiattribute decision-making (MADM) method to select the best available radio access network. A simulation scenario involving different applications at various mobile device velocities was developed. The results proved the algorithm’s effectiveness compared to some of the earlier proposed vertical handover algorithms. At velocities below 10 m/s and 30 m/s, the proposed algorithm had 0% and 15.02% unnecessary handovers, respectively, while the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) utility’s function-based algorithm obtained 12.38% and 23.24% at the same velocities, respectively. In addition, compared to TOPSIS, the obtained results of the proposed algorithm demonstrated a lower handover failure rate and ping-pong rate for a velocity span of 1–30 m/s for the considered user applications.

Utilising software defined networking to address vertical handover management in 5G networks

Utilising software defined networking to address vertical handover management in 5G networks

Utilizing Software Defined Networking (SDN) to Address Vertical Handover Management in 5G Networks

Utilizing Software Defined Networking (SDN) to Address Vertical Handover Management in 5G Networks

Analytical Review and Study on Various Vertical Handover Management Technologies in 5G Heterogeneous Network

In recent mobile networks, due to the huge number of subscribers, the traffic may occur rapidly; therefore, it is complex to guarantee the accurate operation of the network. On the other hand, the Fifth generation (5G) network plays a vital role in the handover mechanism. Handover management is a prominent issue in 5G heterogeneous networks. Therefore, the Handover approach relocates the connection between the user equipment and the consequent terminal from one network to another. Furthermore, the handover approaches manage each active connection for the user equipment. This survey offers an extensive analysis of 50 research papers based on existing handover approaches in the 5G heterogeneous network. Finally, existing methods considering conventional vertical handover management strategies are elaborated to improve devising effective vertical handover management strategies. Moreover, the possible future research directions in attaining efficient vertical handover management in a 5G heterogeneous network are elaborated.

A network controlled vertical handoff mechanism for heterogeneous wireless network using optimized support vector neural network

PurposeVertical handoff mechanism (VHO) becomes very popular because of the improvements in the mobility models. These developments are less to certain circumstances and thus do not provide support in generic mobility, but the vertical handover management providing in the heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs) is crucial and challenging. Hence, this paper introduces the vertical handoff management approach based on an effective network selection scheme.Design/methodology/approachThis paper aims to improve the working principle of previous methods and make VHO more efficient and reliable for the HWN.Initially, the handover triggering techniques is modelled for identifying an appropriate place to initiate handover based on the computed coverage area of cellular base station or wireless local area network (WLAN) access point. Then, inappropriate networks are eliminated for determining the better network to perform handover. Accordingly, a network selection approach is introduced on the basis ofthe Fractional-dolphin echolocation-based support vector neural network (Fractional-DE-based SVNN). The Fractional-DE is designed by integrating Fractional calculus (FC) in Dolphin echolocation (DE), and thereby, modifying the update rule of the DE algorithm based on the location of the solutions in past iterations. The proposed Fractional-DE algorithm is used to train Support vector neural network (SVNN) for selecting the best weights. Several parameters, like Bit error rate (BER), End to end delay (EED), jitter, packet loss, and energy consumption are considered for choosing the best network.FindingsThe performance of the proposed VHO mechanism based on Fractional-DE is evaluated based on delay, energy consumption, staytime, and throughput. The proposed Fractional-DE method achieves the minimal delay of 0.0100 sec, the minimal energy consumption of 0.348, maximal staytime of 4.373 sec, and the maximal throughput of 109.20 kbps.Originality/valueIn this paper, a network selection approach is introduced on the basis of the Fractional-Dolphin Echolocation-based Support vector neural network (Fractional-DE-based SVNN). The Fractional-DE is designed by integrating Fractional calculus (FC) in Dolphin echolocation (DE), and thereby, modifying the update rule of the DE algorithm based on the location of the solutions in past iterations. The proposed Fractional-DE algorithm is used to train SVNN for selecting the best weights. Several parameters, like Bit error rate (BER), End to end delay (EED), jitter, packet loss, and energy consumption are considered for choosing the best network.The performance of the proposed VHO mechanism based on Fractional-DE is evaluated based on delay, energy consumption, staytime, and throughput, in which the proposed method offers the best performance.

5G heterogeneous network (HetNets): a self-optimization technique for vertical handover management

PurposeVertical handover has been grown rapidly due to the mobility model improvements. These improvements are limited to certain circumstances and do not provide the support in the generic mobility, but offering vertical handover management in HetNets is very crucial and challenging. Therefore, this paper presents a vertical handoff management method using the effective network identification method.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a vertical handoff management method using the effective network identification method. The handover triggering schemes are initially modeled to find the suitable position for starting handover using computed coverage area of the WLAN access point or cellular base station. Consequently, inappropriate networks are removed to determine the optimal network for performing the handover process. Accordingly, the network identification approach is introduced based on an adaptive particle-based Sailfish optimizer (APBSO). The APBSO is newly designed by incorporating self-adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO) in Sailfish optimizer (SFO) and hence, modifying the update rule of the APBSO algorithm based on the location of the solutions in the past iterations. Also, the proposed APBSO is utilized for training deep-stacked autoencoder to choose the optimal weights. Several parameters, like end to end (E2E) delay, jitter, signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), packet loss, handover probability (HOP) are considered to find the best network.FindingsThe developed APBSO-based deep stacked autoencoder outperformed than other methods with a minimal delay of 11.37 ms, minimal HOP of 0.312, maximal stay time of 7.793 s and maximal throughput of 12.726 Mbps, respectively.Originality/valueThe network identification approach is introduced based on an APBSO. The APBSO is newly designed by incorporating self-APSO in SFO and hence, modifying the update rule of the APBSO algorithm based on the location of the solutions in the past iterations. Also, the proposed APBSO is used for training deep-stacked autoencoder to choose the optimal weights. Several parameters, like E2E delay, jitter, SINR, packet loss and HOP are considered to find the best network. The developed APBSO-based deep stacked autoencoder outperformed than other methods with minimal delay minimal HOP, maximal stay time and maximal throughput.

Vertical handover in heterogeneous networks using WDWWO algorithm with NN

ABSTRACT In heterogeneous networks, Vertical Handover (VH) plays a vital consequence of customer mobility as they have a high impact on networking performance like delay, throughput and call block probability. Even in the presence of various existing works, VH management exhibit certain drawbacks like method complexity, difficult network modelling and inaccurate handover. Thus, a hybrid methodology is proposed in this work which can provide accurate VH and considerable reduction in working complexity. Here, a combination of Deep Residual Neural (DRN) and Wind-Driven Water Wave Optimisation (WDWWO) is introduced to perform VH. Accurate prediction of Received Signal Strength (RSS) is a difficult task for mobile users while moving from one network to another. In order to tackle this situation, DRN is used with WDWWO based weight optimisation, hence the name Optimised DRN (ODRN). Almost every networking parameters like bandwidth, delay, throughput, velocity, BER, SNR, energy consumption, monetary cost and data traffic are included in ODRN modelling. The proposed work is implemented in NS2 platform and resultant performances like energy consumption, RSS, throughput, packet delivery ratio, packet loss, handover failure rate, algorithm convergence and latency are compared with conventional methods of D-TOPSIS, FIS-ENN and F-AHP.

Collaborative cross-layer framework for handover decision in overlay networks

Up to date the vertical handover (VHO) management across heterogeneous wireless networks has received large attention in recent researches. Independent decisions on different protocol layers responding to the same event may lead to un-optimal operation during VHO over heterogeneous wireless networks. There is demand for solutions capable of managing handovers while ensuring sufficient Quality of Experience for running applications with low signaling overhead. However, user perception has not been handled intensively in context-aware decision algorithms when the Mobile Node undergoes handover. The proposed cross-layer decision framework integrates a set of Quality of Experience based decision-making modules to provide the ability for upper layers to adapt dynamically to fluctuating environmental conditions and optimize the access selection process using a unified signaling messages. This middleware solution manage the signaling coordination actions based on feedback triggers and various policies to reduce false handover indications, compensate for link-layer fluctuations and minimize the impact of mobility. Numerical results highlight enhancements brought by the proposed framework over reference frameworks in terms of perceived quality, handover initiation time and delay constraints.

Conceptual mobility model of vertical handover decision in heterogeneous networks

In heterogeneous network, maintaining seamless connectivity needs excessive efforts from various aspects such as network availability and mobile node reliability. Presently, a vertical handover management is a practical approach in facilitating the service continuity for mobile users. Many researches have been conducted in this area by considering performance improvement in delay, latency, and overhead. Preserving the Quality of Services (QoS) based on user mobility and pattern movement during handover decision has become an important aspect in vertical handover management. This paper presents the conceptual mobility model of vertical handover decision in heterogeneous network. Hence, several researches in vertical handover decision management has been reviewed regarding the issues on the vertical handover decision algorithms such as RSS Based Algorithm, MADM Based Algorithm and Intelligence Based Algorithm. This paper highlights the current decision algorithms that integrate the traditional methods with intelligence algorithm for better optimization. In decision parameters, the user mobility pattern can be importance in terms of direction randomness and mobility speed. Hence, a conceptual mobility-awareness model for vertical handover are been proposed in targeting some improvement of handover performance.

Mobility management on 5G Vehicular Cloud Computing systems

Fifth generation (5G) Vehicular Cloud Computing (VCC) systems use heterogeneous network access technologies to fulfill the requirements of modern services. Multiple services with different Quality of Service (QoS) constraints could be available in each vehicle, while at the same time, user requirements and provider policies must be addressed. Therefore, the design of efficient Vertical Handover (VHO) management schemes for 5G-VCC infrastructures is needed. In this paper, a novel VHO management scheme for 5G-VCC systems is proposed. Whenever the user satisfaction grade becomes less than a predefined threshold, VHO is initiated and network selection is performed, considering the velocity of the vehicle, network characteristic criteria such as throughput, delay, jitter and packet loss, as well as provider policy criteria such as service reliability, security and price. The proposed scheme uses linguistic values for VHO criteria attributes represented by Interval Valued Pentagonal Fuzzy Numbers (IVPFNs) to express the information using membership intervals. The VHO scheme is applied to a 5G-VCC system which includes 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) Macrocells and Femtocells, as well as IEEE 802.11p Wireless Access for Vehicular Environment (WAVE) Road Side Units (RSUs). Performance evaluation shows that the suggested method ensures the Always Best Connection (ABC) principle, while at the same time outperforms existing VHO management schemes.

Autonomic Handover Management for Heterogeneous Networks in a Future Internet Context: A Survey

Future Internet (FI) scenarios envisage ubiquitous broadband coverage and seamless mobility, enabling the availability of personalized network connectivity at all places and with a high quality of service (QoS). In such a heterogeneous and complex environment, vertical handover (VHO) management is key for achieving the connectivity objectives, but also presents several challenges. In surveying this topic, this paper takes a direction that extends the state-of-the-art: By incorporating concepts of autonomic network management (ANM), in particular the self-management and cognitive functionalities therein, to VHO management, this paper sheds new light to VHO operations from an ANM point of view, encompassing FI environments and the emerging fifth generation networks. In doing so, the survey identifies the main concepts and provides a taxonomy of relevant architectural components. Based on this taxonomy, a number of important autonomic features are identified, each one promoting the system’s self-optimization along a certain direction toward the overall enhancement of the VHO operations. Another contribution of this paper is the consideration of robustness in VHO decision making (i.e., achieving stable decisions under uncertainty) and a discussion of the relation between robustness factors and the autonomic features previously introduced. The general concepts developed in this paper are applied to representative state-of-the-art handover management solutions with autonomic characteristics. These specific solutions are presented, analyzed, and correlated according to the proposed taxonomy and criteria, culminating to conclusions that provide useful insights toward future, further enhanced solutions.

QoS Aware Predictive Radio Resource Management Approach Based on MIH Protocol

The vision of next-generation wireless networks is based on the heterogeneity of different types of radio access technologies such as LTE/LTE-Advanced, WiMax, and Wi-Fi to achieve the demand of high data rate and good quality of service (QoS) to support multimedia streaming at accuracy levels. As a significant key toward achieving this objective, vertical handover management schemes have been broadly treated in the literature. This later mechanism could be redefined as a process of reallocating resources as result of roaming user from one technology to another. Therefore, the addressed issue is not only how to ensure a seamless mobility and end-to-end QoS guarantee but also how to reassign resource when requested and use all offered capacity without underuse it or overuse it. In this context, we propose a new scheme that involves vertical handover process and resource control mechanism by explicitly using multiple challenges to achieve a load balancing among available radio access technologies in order to improve average system utilization. From the radio resource management point of view, our optimized vertical handover procedure has the three following phases: 1) resource allocation estimation; 2) radio resource allocation decision; and 3) radio resources allocation and allocation notification. Detailed simulation analysis illustrates that our scheme is not complex as well as its ability to provide good performance in terms of overall QoS satisfaction in the system.

Enabling multimedia aware vertical handover Management in Internet of Things based heterogeneous wireless networks

Enabling seamless connectivity in Internet of Things (IoT) based heterogeneous wireless networks and pervasive use of smartphones in daily life require high data speed and always-best-connected services. However, providing vertical handover management in heterogeneous wireless networks is a difficult and challenging task. Moreover, various issues are present in the current vertical handover management schemes such as inappropriate handover triggering, high handover delay, wrong network selection, etc. In order to address the aforementioned issues, we propose a generic vertical handover management scheme. Our research is twofold; firstly, the Mobile Node (MN) dynamically checks the data rate required by the applications running on the MN’s device. If the data rate drops below a predefined threshold, the MN initiates the handover. Secondly, the network selection is performed by considering various parameters such as end-to-end delay, jitter, Bit Error Rate, and packet loss. The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) optimization algorithm uses the above parameters to select the target network with minimum handover delay and time. The proposed scheme is compared with the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), Weighted Product Method (WPM), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and Fuzzy TOPSIS in context of energy consumption, throughput, average MN’s stay time in a network, handover delay, and handover time. The experimental results show that the proposed vertical handover management scheme outperforms the existing schemes used for similar purpose.

Fuzzy based multi-criteria vertical handover decision modeling in heterogeneous wireless networks

Vertical handover gain significant importance due to the enhancements in mobility models by the Fourth Generation (4G) technologies. However, these enhancements are limited to specific scenarios and hence do not provide support for generic mobility. Similarly, various schemes are proposed based on these mobility models but most of them are suffered from the high packet loss, frequent handovers, too early and late handovers, inappropriate network selection, etc. To address these challenges, a generic vertical handover management scheme for heterogeneous wireless networks is proposed in this article. The proposed scheme works in three phases. In the first phase, a handover triggering approach is designed to identify the appropriate place for initiating handover based on the estimated coverage area of a WLAN access point or cellular base station. In the second phase, fuzzy rule based system is designed to eliminate the inappropriate networks before deciding an optimal network for handover. In the third phase, a network selection scheme is developed based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) decision mechanism. Various parameters such as delay, jitter, Bit Error Rate (BER), packet loss, communication cost, response time, and network load are considered for selecting an optimal network. The proposed scheme is tested in a mobility scenario with different speeds of a mobile node ranging from very low to very high. The simulation results are compared with the existing decision models used for network selection and handover triggering approaches. The proposed scheme outperforms these schemes in terms of energy consumption, handover delay and time, packet loss, good put, etc.

An Energy-Efficient Mobile-Controlled Vertical Handover Management for Real Time Services

Multiple wireless access technology has been embedded into a single mobile device as a fundamental feature, aiming to give end users ubiquitous access at any time. To allow the users to enjoy the ubiquitous connectivity, the mobile device has to consume higher energy for the simultaneous activation of multiple wireless interface and the continuous connectivity. In addition, a seamless vertical handover between the access technologies is a mandatory requirement to insure the quality, reliability and continuity of real time services. In this paper, the continuity of real time services as well as energy saving for mobile devices has been taken into account. The conceptual idea is that whenever traffic rate is lower than a threshold it will be smoothly handed over to a low energy consumption technology, i.e., Bluetooth. When the traffic exceeds the limitation of Bluetooth bandwidth, it will be handed over to a wider bandwidth technology, i.e., Wi-Fi. In the considered scenarios, the technologies are not interconnected; hence, the vertical handover management must be fully controlled by the mobile devices. The performance of the system including energy saving and maintaining the continuity of real time services has been evaluated by direct measurements in a real testbed.

A Survey of Context Aware Vertical Handover Management Schemes in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Modern smartphones and wireless-enabled devices are equipped with a number of interfaces to access multiple networks in heterogeneous wireless networks. Seamless mobility between these networks can be achieved by optimizing parameters related with vertical handover management . This paper presents a detailed review of the recent schemes used for context-aware vertical handover management in heterogeneous wireless networks. In particular, we reviewed user-centric, network centric, and hybrid schemes, and compare them in context of throughput, packet loss ratio, and other advantages such as handover delay, cost, energy, and bandwidth optimization.

A Vertical Handover Management Scheme based on Decision Modelling in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

ABSTRACTProviding a continuous connection in heterogeneous wireless networks is a challenging job. Traditional approaches are mainly concerned to specific scenarios. These approaches are also suffering from different problems like ping-pong effect, inappropriate handover triggering, etc. Therefore, to provide a generic connectivity in heterogeneous wireless networks, we proposed a vertical handover decision scheme. The proposed scheme performs handover triggering using simple additive weighting on the data rate of a point of attachment (PoA). The user calculates the data rate required by different applications and then compares it with a predefined threshold. Similarly, the network selection is performed using Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) decision model on different parameters such as delay, jitter, bit error rate, packet loss ratio, communication cost, response time, and network load. The PoA of a network calculates its rank using TOPSIS and sends it to the user. The user then selects the network with the highest rank. The proposed vertical handover decision scheme is compared with grey relational analysis and analytical hierarchy process in the context of handover rate, failed handovers, packet loss ratio, and throughput. The proposed scheme is tested in different mobility scenarios, and it is shown that our scheme provides superior performance over the existing schemes.

A novel media independent handover‐based approach for vertical handover over heterogeneous wireless networks

SUMMARYThe key purpose for seamless mobility and service continuity between heterogeneous wireless networks is the handover. Vertical handover management is one of key challenges in such environment. To deal with some of these challenges, an IEEE 802.21 media independent handover (MIH) framework has been standardized. The main purpose of this standard is to offer a general interface for the handover by abstracting the link layer intelligence to higher layers. However, there still exist a number of limitations in MIH architecture. In this paper, a new architecture of improved MIH is presented to perform vertical handover between wireless heterogeneous networks. We focused on interworking architecture between wireless local area network and long term evolution advanced network with the use of MIH signaling to define an efficient vertical handover. A performance analysis model for the proposed MIH‐based vertical handover is derived. Analysis results show that the proposed method can be easily deployed in present multimedia service networks. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Vertical Handover Management for VoIP Session over Broadband Wireless Networks

Today, wireless LAN (IEEE802.11g/n) has been the dominant wireless network that can provide high data rates in a limited coverage area. While emerging mobile WiMAX (IEEE802.16e) can provide a wireless broadband access to mobile users in a wide coverage area. These two different technolgies will co-exist while complementing each other in some regions, hence, a mobile node (MN) with dual interfaces traverses and executes many handovers (HOs) between 802.11g and 802.16e. Meanwhile, there is a huge demand for Voice over IP (VoIP) service over wireless networks. However, VoIP is a delay and loss sensitive application, hence, VoIP session is more likely to be deteriorated during HO between 802.11g and 802.16e. In order to maintain quality of VoIP session during HO, we proposed Vertical Handover Management (VHM) for VoIP session that focuses on HO initiation and decision strategy according to the wireless link condition and congestion state of wireless networks. The VHM exploits request to send (RTS) retries and round trip time (RTT) between an MN and an access point in an 802.11g interface as well as a carrier to interference noise ration (CINR) level and MN’s queue length of an 802.16e interface as HO triggers. We then conducted simulation experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed VHM using QualNet 4.5. Our simulation results show that our proposed VHM can preserve the quality of VoIP session during such HOs.

An intelligent agent-based scheme for vertical handover management across heterogeneous networks

Advances in technology have enabled a proliferation of mobile devices and a broad spectrum of novel and outbreaking solutions for new applications and services. The increasing demand for all time and everywhere services requires the network operators to integrate different kinds of wireless and cellular networks. To enable this integration, it is important that users can roam freely across networks. As different technologies are involved in the current infrastructure, the problem of vertical handover needs to be addressed. To cope with the problem of seamless connectivity, several solutions have been presented. But most of them either lack intelligence or are not adaptable for reducing the packet loss and delay involved in the handover procedure. An intelligent technique is needed in order to perform the service continuity in the heterogeneous environment. This paper presents a cooperative agent based approach for the vertical handover using a knowledge plane. We propose to introduce the agents in the mobile nodes and access points to collect the necessary information from the environment. Based on this information, agents take a handover decision. A selection function is also introduced in this work which helps in choosing a best network from the available ones for handover. Finally, the proposed approach is validated with the help of simulations.