A Context-Aware Access Network Selection Based on Utility-Function for Handover in WLAN-LTE Environment

Network selection plays an essential role in serving mobile users with the requisite Quality of Service (QoS) in the context of next generation networks (NGN). It boosts efficiently the use of radio resources in heterogeneous wireless networks environment. In order to be Always Best Connected in such environment that involve multiple networks with different access technologies, user’s preferences and QoS requirements need to be considered during the Vertical Handover process. To address this issue, this paper proposes a context-aware access network selection based on utility-function that takes into consideration user’s and QoS preferences. It aims at maximizing the user satisfaction while meeting application QoS when connecting to a target network. The proposed approach prioritizes networks with higher relevance to different types of applications and enables seamless connectivity to mobile user and applications. Thus, network resources are conveniently managed to support diverse services that might be considered by mobile users. Simulations results are provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in low, medium and high mobility scenarios consisting in WLAN-LTE networks compared with the existing baseline scheme.