Intelligent seamless handoffs

• Main Author: Alemaän, Jorge Espâi
• Published: University of Strathclyde 2013
• Subjects: 621.3
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.576476

The prevalence of multiple heterogeneous radio access technologies promises better quality of service to users. Users, provided with mul- tihomed devices, may now access their desired services via just one or multiple interfaces simultaneously, and to change access network or interface according to their current preferences and ongoing service requirements so that they are always best connected. In this ideal scenario, network mobility becomes a broader technological challenge, as it incorporates user centric satisfaction evaluation methods for the cost and perceptual quality of the current applications, heterogeneous access network monitoring techniques for network information discovery, mobility management schemes for session continuity and application adaptivity strategies for optimum application performance. This thesis provides an overview of the challenges presented by intelligent seamless handoff requirements, and then provides a prag- matic solution to intelligent seamless mobility. The thesis problem space is divided into distinct domains. The first part of this thesis focuses on mobility management schemes since such schemes define the architectural framework from which heterogeneous networking rises. Secondly, this thesis explores TCP throughput during hando within heterogeneous environments. Finally, this thesis proposes a novel network selection algorithm for multihomed users running a variety of applications. These contributions have been thoroughly tested and validated by simulation.