Energy–Quality–Cost Tradeoff in a Multimedia-Based Heterogeneous Wireless Network Environment

User mobility, heterogeneity of networks and network technologies, variety of mobile devices (e.g., different operating systems, display size, CPU capabilities, battery limitations), and wide range of video-centric applications (e.g., video on demand, video games, live video streaming, video conferences, surveillance) open up the demand for user-centric solutions that adapt the video application to the underlying network conditions and device characteristics. In addition, the absence of battery improvements suitable to meet the growing power requirements and the need for green Information and Communications Technologies ICT provides strong motivation for researchers to develop energy efficient techniques to manage and reduce power consumption in next-generation wireless networks, while still meeting high user quality expectations. In this context, we propose adapt-or-handover, a hybrid multimedia delivery solution, which balances the benefits of multimedia content adaptation and of network selection to decrease power consumption in a heterogeneous wireless network environment. The proposed solution is analyzed and comparatively tested through simulations. The results show how, by using adapt-or-handover, the users benefit from up to 31% energy savings with insignificant degradation in quality, in comparison with other energy efficient solutions.