Modeling of User-Perceived Web-Browsing Performance over a WLAN/3G Inter-Working Environment

The wide deployment of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) and the advent of Third Generation (3G) networks have provided users with the flexibility of switching between dissimilar networks while running different applications. A Mobile Terminal (MT) can be equipped with multimodal functionalities, and can select the wireless interface that best suits its needs. This paper specifically focuses on the web-browsing application, and models the user-perceived performance for an MT operating over a WLAN/3G environment. A system model is proposed that facilitates performance evaluation of web-browsing sessions in terms of different network metrics. The effect of user mobility and that of variations in network characteristics are incorporated. A simulation framework has been developed and the results generated are presented to demonstrate the utility of the data-session modeling and handover algorithms proposed in this paper.