Towards a seamless mobility solution for the real world: Handover decision

The increasing use of wireless networks has raised the desire to have not only a stable and good quality access to the network, but also to seamlessly change the network when moving. Various handover algorithms have been proposed to handle this situation. Unfortunately, many of these handover algorithms have only been evaluated by simulations. They do not take the wide range of mobile devices with varying system parameters into account. For the practical deployment, handover algorithms are required that adapt to various device parameters and network characteristics. In this paper we present a fuzzy-based vertical handover decision algorithm which adjusts itself to the given device and network capabilities. Starting with a discussion of handover requirements we present the algorithm and describe how it is activated in the handover process. Finally we present several experiments which evaluate the accuracy of the handover decision, the quality of service guarantees for the application, and the resource consumption.