A Comparative Analysis of Vertical Handover Decision Process Algorithms for Next Generation Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Increasing consumer demand for access to services anywhere and anytime is driving a hastened technological progression towards the integration of a variety of wireless access technologies. Therefore one of the chief interest points of Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWNs), refers to the capability to support wireless network access equipments to guarantee a high rate of services between dissimilar wireless networks. To answer these problems it is essential to have decision algorithms to decide for every user of mobile terminal, which is the most excellent network at some point, for a service or a precise application that the user needs. Therefore to make these things, many algorithms use the vertical handoff technique. A series of algorithms based on vertical handoff technique with a categorization of the different existing vertical handoff decision strategies, which tries to resolve these issues of wireless network selection at a specified time for a specific application of an user has been discussed in this paper. Also few parameters that are to be considered during vertical handover have been discussed briefly. Keywords— Handoff, horizontal handover (HHO), vertical handover (VHO), WIMAX, WiFi, quality of service (QoS), heterogeneous networks, parameters.