Network selection strategy in heterogeneous multi-access environment

Network selection mechanisms play a vital role in ensuring quality of service in the heterogeneous multi-access environment. In this article we develop a network selection scheme for an integrated cellular/wireless local area network (WLAN) system to guarantee mobile users being always best connected (ABC). The proposed scheme comprises three parts, with the first detecting the availability of WLAN, while the second applying an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to decide the relative weights of evaluative criteria set according to user preferences, network condition and service applications, the third normalizing parameters and calculating decision-making index. Simulations conducted in a heterogeneous system with UMTS and wireless LAN reveal that the proposed network selection technique can effectively decide the optimum network through making trade-offs among network condition, user preference, and service application, while avoiding frequent handoffs.