A quality of service negotiation-based vertical handoff decision scheme in heterogeneous wireless systems

This paper introduces a novel vertical handoff decision scheme. The objective is to provide users with enhanced quality of service (QoS) and maximize the network revenue. This scheme balances both-side interests via a suitably defined network merit function and a user–operator negotiation model. The merit function evaluates network performance based on user preferences and decides the most appropriate network for users. The negotiation model is defined as a semi-Markov decision process (SMDP). An optimal policy that maximizes the network revenue without violating QoS constraints is found by resolving the SMDP problem using Q-learning. Furthermore, a time-adaptive QoS monitoring mechanism is combined with the merit function in order to decrease the power consumption on terminal interface activation. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed vertical handoff decision scheme enhances the performance in terms of power consumption, handoff call-dropping probability (HCDP) and network revenue.