Multi-subnets selection and rate allocation in a heterogeneous wireless network

Heterogeneous wireless network (HWN) technology enables a mobile client (MC) to access multiple heterogeneous subnets for better quality of service (QoS) at a lower cost. In the context of conventional network protocol, we cannot fully utilize the potential of a HWN by having separate and independently operating subnet interfaces. In this paper, we propose a multi-MAC management scheme, performing multi-subnets selection and rate allocation over multiple heterogenous wireless interfaces for uplink traffic. Our scheme considers uplink traffic mixed by multiple applications with different QoS requirements and allocates appropriate data rates to multiple connections between MC and subnets. Extensive simulation results compare the performance and validate our scheme.