Vertical Handoff with Predictive Received Signal Strength in Next Generation Wireless Network

Since the last few decades, tremendous innovations and inventions have been observed in every field, but especially in wireless network technology. The prevailing demand curves and trends in this particular area of communication show the importance of real-time multimedia applications over several networks with guaranteed quality of service (QoS). The Next Generation Wireless Network (NGWN) consists of heterogeneous wireless networks that will grant high data rate and bandwidth to mobile users. The primary aim of Next Generation Wireless Network (NGWN) is to conceal heterogeneities and to achieve convergence of diverse networks to provide seamless mobility. So that mobile user can move freely between networks without losing the connection or changing the setting at any moment. When the mobile user moves between different networks, there is a requirement to handover the channel, from one network to another by considering its services, features and user preferences. Channel handover between two different networks is done with the help of vertical handoff (VHO). In a heterogeneous environment, numerous technologies co-exist with their unique characteristics. Therefore, it is very difficult to design efficient handoff decision algorithm. The poorly designed handoff algorithm tends to increase the traffic load and, thereby tend to dramatic decrease in quality of service. A mobile node equipped with multiple network interfaces will be able to access heterogeneous wireless access network. But the availability of alternatives give rise to a problem of unnecessary handoff. To avoid this, we have proposed a decision algorithm based on predictive received signal strength, hysteresis margin and dwell time to select an optimum target network. The handoff policies are designed using received signal strength (RSS), available bandwidth, service cost, user preference, type of application and network condition to reduce the number of handoffs, decision delay, probability of handoff failure and probability of unnecessary handoff. We have also made a comparative analysis of various vertical handoff decision algorithms in this paper.