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UDS: A Distributed RAT Selection Mechanism for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

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Abstract

The selection of the most suitable radio access technology to serve as the communication means for a service in a heterogeneous wireless access network is a complex task. It considers a number of different parameters and it involves numerous network technologies and entities. Several mechanisms have been proposed that focus on different aspects and follow different strategies. We introduce a policy based scheme that takes into consideration the user preferences, along with network conditions and user moving speed. Its ultimate goal is to support a session through the most desirable radio access technology, from the user perspective, while managing the overall network resources in an optimum way. It comprises a distributed algorithm running at the terminal and the network side. The performance of the proposed mechanism is evaluated against that of a typical load balancing scheme, commonly used in the literature. The results show that the holistic treatment of the diverse parameters fulfils the aforementioned goal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Ioannis Modeas & Lazaros Merakos

  2. Department of Telecommunications Science and Technology, University of Peloponnese, Tripoli, Greece

    Alexandros Kaloxylos

Authors
  1. Ioannis Modeas
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  2. Alexandros Kaloxylos
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  3. Lazaros Merakos
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Correspondence to Ioannis Modeas.

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Modeas, I., Kaloxylos, A. & Merakos, L. UDS: A Distributed RAT Selection Mechanism for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks. Wireless Pers Commun 74, 101–132 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-012-0901-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-012-0901-2

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