Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An intelligent agent-based scheme for vertical handover management across heterogeneous networks

  • Published:
annals of telecommunications - annales des télécommunications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Advances in technology have enabled a proliferation of mobile devices and a broad spectrum of novel and outbreaking solutions for new applications and services. The increasing demand for all time and everywhere services requires the network operators to integrate different kinds of wireless and cellular networks. To enable this integration, it is important that users can roam freely across networks. As different technologies are involved in the current infrastructure, the problem of vertical handover needs to be addressed. To cope with the problem of seamless connectivity, several solutions have been presented. But most of them either lack intelligence or are not adaptable for reducing the packet loss and delay involved in the handover procedure. An intelligent technique is needed in order to perform the service continuity in the heterogeneous environment. This paper presents a cooperative agent based approach for the vertical handover using a knowledge plane. We propose to introduce the agents in the mobile nodes and access points to collect the necessary information from the environment. Based on this information, agents take a handover decision. A selection function is also introduced in this work which helps in choosing a best network from the available ones for handover. Finally, the proposed approach is validated with the help of simulations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Context is any information that is pertinent to the situation of an entity (person, place, or object.) [23].

  2. Mobile agents are programs, typically written in a script language, which may be dispatched from a client computer and transported to a remote server computer for execution [6].

  3. http://projet-sun.it-sudparis.eu

  4. The results presented in this figure are related to Eqs. 8 and 9.

References

  1. Ahmed A, Boulahia LM, Gaiti D (2010) Cooperative agent based vertical handover scheme for heterogeneous networks. In: AICT’10: The 6th Adv. Intl. Conf. on Telecoms. IEEE, Los Alamitos, pp 410–415

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ahmed A, Rahim-Amoud R, Merghem-Boulahia L, Gaiti D (2010) An agent-based approach for vertical handover in heterogeneous wireless networks. In: AICSSA’10: The ACS/IEEE 8th international conference on computer systems and applications. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 1–8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Ahmed T, Kyamakya K, Ludwig M (2006) Design and implementation of a context-aware decision algorithm for heterogeneous networks. In: SAC ’06: proceedings of the 2006 ACM symposium on applied computing. NY, USA, pp 1134–1138

  4. Akyildiz IF, Lee WY, Vuran MC, and Mohanty. S (2006) Next generation/dynamic spectrum access/cognitive radio wireless networks: a survey. Comput Netw 50:2127–2159

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Andrej V, Roman N, Gorazd K (2009) The impact of network topology on the performance of map selection algorithms. Comput Netw 54:1197–1209

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bellavista P, Corradi A, Foschini L (2007) Context-aware handoff middleware for transparent service continuity in wireless networks. Pervasive Mob Comput 3:439–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. onnin JM, Lassoued I, Hamouda ZB (2009) Automatic multi-interface management through profile handling. Mob Netw Appl 14:4–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bou Diab W, Tohme S (2009) End-to-end security and seamless handover solution for real-time communications over 3G networks. In: In Q2SWinet ’09: proceedings of the 5th ACM symposium on QoS and security for wireless and mobile networks. ACM, New York, pp 13–22

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Bullot T, Khatoun R, Hugues L, Gaïti D, Merghem-Boulahia L (2008) A situatedness-based knowledge plane for autonomic networking. Int J Netw Manag 18:171–193

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Çeken C, Yarkan S, Arslan H (2010) Interference aware vertical handoff decision algorithm for quality of service support in wireless heterogeneous networks. Comput Netw 54:726–740

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Chen WT, Shu YY (2005) Active application oriented vertical handoff in next-generation wireless networks. In: Wireless communications and networking conference, 2005 IEEE, vol 3. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 1383–1388

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Chu TC, Lin Y (2009) An extension to fuzzy MCDM. Comput Math Appl 57:445–454

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Clark DD, Partridge C, Ramming JC, Wroclawski JT (2003) A knowledge plane for the internet. In: SIGCOMM ’03: proceedings of the 2003 conference on applications, technologies, architectures, and protocols for computer communications. ACM, New York, pp 3–10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. El-Sadek WF, Mikhail MN (2009) Universal mobility with global identity (UMGI) architecture. In: Proceedings of the 2009 international conference on wireless networks and information systems, WNIS ’09. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 389–394

    Google Scholar 

  15. Eng HO, Jamil YK (2009) Cooperative radio resource management framework for future IP-based multiple radio access technologies environment. Comput Netw 54:1083–1107

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ferber J (1999) Multi-agent system: an introduction to distributed artificial intelligence. Addison-Wesley Longman, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  17. Ferrus R, Sallent O, Agusti R (2010) Interworking in heterogeneous wireless networks: comprehensive framework and future trends. Wireless Commun 17:22–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. FIPA (2002) Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) ACL Message Structure Specification http://www.fipa.org/. FIPA TC Communication, sc00061g standard edition

  19. Gao X, Wu G (2009) System and method for supporting quality of service in vertical handovers between heterogeneous networks. US patent no. 7613457

  20. Gruber TR (1993) A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowl Acquis 5:199–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Guerin F (2007) Applying game theory mechanisms in open agent systems with complete information. J Auton Agents Multi-agent Syst 15:109–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hasswa A, Nasser N, Hossanein H (2005) Generic vertical handoff decision function for heterogeneous wireless networks. In: 2nd IFIP international conference on wireless and optical communications networks. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 239–243

    Google Scholar 

  23. Hong J, Suh E, Kim SJ (2009) Context-aware systems: a literature review and classification. Expert Syst Appl 36:8509–8522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Horrich S, Ben Jamaa S, Godlewski P (2007) Adaptive vertical mobility decision in heterogeneous networks. In: Third international conference on wireless and mobile communications, 2007. ICWMC ’07, pp 44–49

  25. Jain M (1999) Finite population cellular radio systems with directed retry. Appl Math Model 23:77–86

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. JASON H (2002) JDOM in the real world. Jdom.org

  27. Jennings NR, Faratin P, Lomuscio AR, Parsons S, Wooldrige MJ, Sierra C (2001) Automated negotiation: prospects, methods and challenges. Group Decis Negot 10:199–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Joe I, Kim W, Hong S (2008) A network selection algorithm considering power consumption in hybrid wireless networks. IEICE Trans Commun E91-B:314–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Joe I, Kim W, Hong S (2008) A network selection algorithm considering power consumption in hybrid wireless networks. IEICE Trans Commun E91-B:314–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Kebede G (2010) Knowledge management: an information science perspective. Int J Inf Manag 30:416–424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Lampropoulos G, Skianis C, Neves P (2010) Optimized fusion of heterogeneous wireless networks based on media-independent handover operations. Wireless Commun 17:78–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Leon SS, Kuldar T (2009) The art of agent-oriented modeling. MIT, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  33. Lin YB, Chlamtac I (2001) Wireless and mobile network architectures. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  34. Makaya C, Pierre S (2008) Adaptive handoff scheme for heterogeneous IP wireless networks. Comput Commun 31:2094–2108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. The MathWorks, Inc (2002) MATLAB the language of technical computing, 13th edn. MathWorks, South Natick

    Google Scholar 

  36. Mohanty S, Akyildiz IF (2007) Performance analysis of handoff techniques based on mobile IP, TCP-migrate, and SIP. IEEE Trans Mob Comput 6:731–747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Mohanty S, Jiang X (2007) Performance analysis of a novel architecture to integrate heterogeneous wireless systems. Comput Netw 51:1095–1105

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  38. Nasser N, Guizani S, Al-Masri E (2007) Middleware vertical handoff manager: A neural network-based solution. In: IEEE International conference on communications, ICC ’07, pp 5671–5676, 24–28

  39. Passas N, Paskalis S, Kaloxylos A, Bader F, Narcisi R, Tsontsis E, Jahan AS, Aghvami H (2005) Enabling technologies for the ‘always best connected’ concept: research articles. Wireless Commun Mob Comput 5:175–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Qingyang v, Abbas J (2008) A quality of service negotiation-based vertical handoff decision scheme in heterogeneous wireless systems. Eur J Oper Res 191:1059–1074

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  41. Quoc-Thinh NV, Nazim A, Yacine GD (2008) A user-centric and context-aware solution to interface management and access network selection in heterogeneous wireless environments. Comput Netw 52:3358–3372

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  42. Rizvi SS, Khan MA, Riasat A (2009) Active scanning: a better approach to reduce handover time at MAC layer for wireless networks. In: Computer, control and communication, IC4 2009, 2nd international conference, pp 1–4

  43. Song Q, Jamalipour A (2008) A quality of service negotiation-based vho decision scheme in heterogeneous wireless systems. Eur J Oper Res 191:1059–1074

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  44. Stevens-Navarro E, Lin Y, Wong VWS (2008) An MDP-based vertical handoff decision algorithm for heterogeneous wireless networks. IEEE Trans Veh Technol 57(2):1243–1254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. SUN (2010) Situated ubiquitous networks project. http://projet-sun.it-sudparis.eu

  46. Tait RJ, Schaefer G, Hopgood AA (2008) Intensity-based image registration using multiple distributed agents. Know-Based Syst 21:256–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. TalebiFard P, Wong T, Leung VCM (2010) Access and service convergence over the mobile internet–a survey. Comput Netw 54:545–557

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  48. Wang XH, Zhang DQ, Gu T, Pung HK (2004) Ontology based context modeling and reasoning using OWL. In: Proc. of the 2nd IEEE annual conf. on pervasive computing and communications workshops, pp 18–22

  49. Wei Q, Farkas K, Prehofer C, Mendes P, Plattner B (2006) Context-aware handover using active network technology. Comput Netw 50:2855–2872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Wei S, Qing AZ (2006) A novel decision strategy of vertical handoff in overlay wireless networks. In: Network computing and applications, IEEE international symposium. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 227–230

    Google Scholar 

  51. Wu J (2008) Contract net protocol for coordination in multi-agent system. In: IITA ’08: proceedings of the 2008 second international symposium on intelligent information technology application. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 1052–1058

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  52. Xing L, Lan Z (2009) A method based on iterative combinatorial auction mechanism for resource allocation in grid multi-agent systems. In: Proceedings of the 2009 international conference on intelligent human–machine systems and cybernetics. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 36–39

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  53. Yifei W, Xiaowei L, Mei S, Junde S (2008) Cooperation radio resource management and adaptive vertical handover in heterogeneous wireless networks. In: International conference on natural computation, vol 5. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos, pp 197–201

    Google Scholar 

  54. Ylianttila M, Mäkelä J, Pahlavan K (2005) Analysis of handoff in a location-aware vertical multi-access network. Comput Netw 47:185–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Zahran AH, Liang B, Saleh A (2006) Signal threshold adaptation for vertical handoff in heterogeneous wireless networks. Mob Netw Appl 11:625–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work has been partially supported by the SUN Project under the grant number and also partially supported by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICD/ERA, STMR UMR 6279, Université de Technologie de Troyes, 12, rue Marie Curie, 10010, Troyes, France

    Atiq Ahmed, Leïla Merghem-Boulahia & Dominique Gaïti

Authors
  1. Atiq Ahmed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Leïla Merghem-Boulahia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dominique Gaïti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Atiq Ahmed.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ahmed, A., Merghem-Boulahia, L. & Gaïti, D. An intelligent agent-based scheme for vertical handover management across heterogeneous networks. Ann. Telecommun. 66, 583–602 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-010-0235-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12243-010-0235-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation