Performance Evaluation of Handover Policies in Mobile Heterogenous Networks

The increasingly ubiquitous deployment of wireless networks together with efforts to complete the standardization of Media Independent Handover (MIH) will support the 4G (Fourth Generation) vision in offering seamless access and an integrated network-of-networks (i.e. all IP network). In the same time, the handover process complexity will increase in next generations of wireless networks, creating the need for augmented knowledge about context, as well as more flexibility in managing the resources. The last two objectives cannot be addressed using the current static (hardcoded) mechanisms for handover initialization, decision and execution; therefore, a new policy-based architecture is proposed to assure the required level of adaptability and flexibility and to respond to user and network dynamics.