Adaptive Decision Making Strategy for Handoff triggering and Network Selection

Next generation mobile networks (4G) is expected to integrate a large number of wireless technologies. However, this integration yields many challenges such as those pertaining to handoff triggering and decision making. Various approaches have been proposed to solve these problems, yet handoff initiation and network destination selection remain critical issues which are widely based on RSS (Received Signal Strength) measurements. Moreover, the use of context-awareness is very limited in the previous works. This paper proposes a new handoff decision strategy which aims to efficiently deal with handoff triggering and network destination selection with respect to mobile terminal requirements and network capabilities. Furthermore, we introduce a new score function that estimates network preferences for both voluntary and forced handoffs. Additionally, to render easier the accessibility to context information, we develop a context aware mechanism which is based on third party architecture. Finally, simulation results show that compared to RSS-based approaches, the proposed handoff decision strategy has greater respect for users’ requirements and preferences.