Reducing the Cost of Service Delivery in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Capitalizing on the unifying capabilities of IP, future wireless network operators (WNO) will be able to deploy heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs). The heterogeneity will enable users to continuously connect to the technology that best meets the users´ application requirements. It will also allow WNOs to change the associations of users to attain certain operational objectives. Despite the possible employment of cost reduction mechanisms based on long term observations, we argue that the user-centric nature of HWNs and the possible permutations of triggers for vertical handoffs (VHs) may effectively render user assignment beyond the WNO´s control. In this paper, investigate the potential of a module dedicated to reduce the cost of service delivery. In doing so, we discuss the considerations of such a module, including the factors affecting the cost of service delivery and the elements involved in identifying and selecting users to undergo a forced VH.