An Efficient Policy for Vertical-Handover-Based Multi-Attribute Utility Theory in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The rapid evolution of wireless networks over the last decade has allowed users to reach any access network at anytime and anywhere. The main challenge in this heterogeneous network is to determine the best access network for the end user in terms of quality of service (QoS) when the vertical handover process is needed. In this chapter, the authors propose an efficient policy for vertical handover based on multi-attribute utility theory. This theory combines two approaches the utility function and multiple attributes decision making (MADM). Firstly, they apply the utility function to build the utility values which are inputted to the attributes matrix decision of MADM. Then they use the NMMD algorithm which is MADM technique to rank the interfaces according utility values. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed policy can achieve a significant improvement concerning three parameters: the reversal phenomenon, the ping-pong effect, and the number of handoff failures.