Network selection in heterogeneous access networks simultaneously satisfying user profile and QoS

Summary Multimode capability empowers mobile devices to select the appropriate network to meet the requirements of user and applications. However, network selection is a challenging task owing to heterogeneous nature of network access links. At the same time, pervasiveness of mobile communication networks accompanied by the advances in wireless devices has raised the user expectations of persistent service and quality. Therefore, it is important for a mobile device to take situation‐based and timely decisions while selecting an access network to ensure both user's and operator's demand. The existing standard, called IEEE 802.21 (media‐independent handover), considers mobile device signal‐strength parameter for network selection from a list of networks. This research has proposed a ranking algorithm to rank heterogeneous networks based on a set of parameters including user profile and QoS. It selects most suitable network owing to multiple handover scenarios. The simulation results have shown that the proposed scheme has successfully satisfied apparently the contradictory requirements related to user profiles and QoS simultaneously.