A self-adaptive joint bandwidth allocation scheme for heterogeneous wireless networks

Our approach coordinately manages radio resources with multiple radio access technologies in an optimum way. A mobility prediction module and a remaining bandwidth estimation module are established at each BS as shown in the lower part of the above figure. The global radio resource manager located at the upper part of this figure consists of a bandwidth utilization optimization module. A mobile host (MH) collects required parameters and the latest MH's state is immediately updated at the BS the MH resides in when a MH's state changes. The mobility prediction module will check with a pre-built lookup table to determine whether the handoff will occur. If the handoff is predicted to occur, the MH sends out a bandwidth requirement to a nearest BS, and the remaining bandwidth estimation module in the target BS will be activated to determine the amount of remaining bandwidth that can be used by the handoffs. In case some BS finds that its bandwidth is going to be inadequate, a bandwidth adjustment coordinator located at the BS will request the common bandwidth utilization optimization module at its upper level to reallocate the bandwidth for the BSs/APs of different RATs. The results of the bandwidth reallocation will then be sent back to each BS to reassign the bandwidth to the MHs.