On evaluation of a novel method for adaptive management of heterogeneous wireless networks in mobile client-server communications

A HTTP input channel can adapt its behavior according to the changing network status in a context-aware fashion. The adaptation includes both selecting and dynamically switching the underlying connection used, as well as coping with disconnection situation. This paper describes the architecture and design of HTTP input channel for multi-access wireless network. A series of experiments were performed in a GPRS-WLAN integrated environment. Performance metrics were measured and analyzed. In particular, the time delay of channel creation and connection switching was investigated. For channel creation, the majority of time delay comes from the normal operation of HTTP URL connection. More time is needed for best connection evaluation and default gateway changing when more than one connection is available. For passive switching delay both event detection and connection evaluation contribute to the most besides the normal HTTP connection opening