Artificial Neural Network Based Vertical Handoff Algorithm for Reducing Handoff Latency

Abstract

One of the most challenging topics for next generation wireless networks is vertical handoff concept since several wireless technologies are assumed to cooperate. Plenty of parameters related to user preferences, application requirements, and network conditions, such as; data rate, service cost, network latency, speed of mobile, battery level, interference ratio and etc. must be considered in vertical handoff process along with traditional RSSI information. In this study, a new artificial neural network based handoff decision algorithm is proposed in order to reduce the handoff latency of smart terminal deployed in aforementioned wireless heterogeneous infrastructures. The prominent parameters data rate, monetary cost and RSSI information are taken as inputs of the developed vertical handoff decision system. Performance results of the proposed system are also compared with those of classical Multiple Attribute Decision Making method Simple Additive Weighting, and of some other artificial intelligence based algorithms. According to the results obtained, the proposed neural network based vertical handoff decision algorithm is able to determine whether a handoff is necessary or not properly, and selects the best candidate access network considering the abovementioned parameters. The results also show that, the neural network based algorithm developed significantly reduces the handoff latency while the number of handoffs, which is another vital performance metric, is still reasonable.