A reputation based vertical handover decision making framework (R-VHDF)

Mobility management over heterogeneous wireless networks is becoming a major interest area as new technologies and services continue to proliferate the wireless networking market. Context awareness can play a major role to improve mobile networking systems and to ensure seamless mobility. In this paper, we focus on Vertical Handover (VHO) decision optimization within heterogeneous wireless environments, where users may connect to different wireless access networks simultaneously (e.g. 2.5G, 3G, WiFi, WiMax). We propose a Reputation based Vertical Handover Decision making Framework (R-VHDF) where the decision is not only based on the Received Signal Strength (RSS), as in most horizontal handover processes, but also on context information about QoS and radio conditions, as well as on networks and previous user's experiences (QoE or Reputation). The solution is based on a flexible and evolutionary distributed context management architecture that handles dynamic and static context information and allows mobile devices to be always connected to the most suitable access network by making VHO decisions based on networks' Reputations. The proposed framework encompasses auto-programmable platforms and distributed context management components within middleware servers and mobile devices. It is validated thought a prototype implementation and performance results are presented and discussed.