A survey of QoS/QoE mechanisms in heterogeneous wireless networks

Heterogeneous Wireless Networks (HWNs) are an important step in making connectivity ubiquitous and pervasive. Leveraging the increasing variety of connectivity options available to devices solves many problems such as capacity, spectrum efficiency, coverage and reliability. Anytime decisions are made for selection, handover, scheduling or routing many performance metrics along with energy efficiency and cost for access must be considered. The increased number of choices in an HWN makes the problem more difficult than traditional homogeneous networks since each Radio Access Technology (RAT) has unique characteristics. For instance, Bluetooth networks have low range and speed but are cheap compared to 4G networks. These types of observations can be factored into decision making in HWNs. Quality of Service and Experience should be considered so that the best possible configuration of connectivity, price and user application is made. All of this should occur autonomously. This paper provides a survey of recent works in HWNs with these ideas in mind. Existing approaches are categorized by function. Limitations and strengths of solutions are highlighted and comparisons between approaches are made to provide a starting point for further research in the area.