Access Network Reselection Based on Momentary Resources in a Converged Wireless Environment

Mobility in a wireless heterogeneous scenario in which the mobile devices are able to connect to more than one access technology available in their vicinity requires a re-consideration on the access network reselection mechanisms. The present paper describes and evaluates the opportunity of introducing novel access reselection procedures which enable a network provider to optimize the allocation of the users on the different access networks available using as central concept that handovers can and should be triggered by the modifications on the resources required by the mobile devices in order to optimize the overall usage of the wireless environment. This concept is exemplified on the 3GPP Evolved Packet Core and evaluated on a minimal prototype implementation.