A user-centric and context-aware solution to interface management and access network selection in heterogeneous wireless environments

This paper investigates issues related to handover management of mobile terminals in heterogeneous wireless environments. The mobile terminals are equipped with multiple wireless radio interfaces and have a limited lifetime battery. Seamless mobility and power utilization efficiency become two important aspects of the handover management. We propose in this work user-centric network selection, power-saving interface management and adaptive handover initiation solutions at the terminal side to support seamless terminal-initiated and terminal-controlled vertical handover. The proposed access network selection is situation-aware and application-aware to suit different communication contexts. It enables terminals to select the most suitable access network according to various access network characteristics. Multiple wireless interfaces of a terminal device are handled in both idle and active communication modes to optimize the power consumption. We also address an adaptive handover initiation scheme to assist the service continuity. We conduct simulations and analyses of the proposed solutions to show their suitability and their efficiency. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.