Enhanced Mobility Support for Roaming Users: Extending the IEEE 802.21 Information Service

Abstract

Abstract. Many cell-phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are equipped with multiple radio interfaces. Because of this, devices need to have ways of efficiently selecting the most suitable access network across multiple technologies based on the physical location of the device as well as userdefined parameters such as cost, bandwidth, and battery consumption. The IEEE has standardized the 802.21 framework for media-independent handovers where dynamic selection of network interfaces is an important feature. This paper describes and evaluates a novel architecture which extends the IEEE 802.21 information service. The architecture is based on a three-layer structure with Location-to-Service Translation (LoST) servers, service provider servers and independent evaluator servers. Evaluator servers are populated with information on coverage and quality of service as provided by trusted users. The proposed architecture allows for competition at all levels and scales well due to its distributed nature. A prototype has been developed and is presented in the paper.

Optimized Access Network Selection in a Combined WLAN/LTE Environment

“…Future work includes integrating the model presented in this article with the proposed extension to IEEE 802.21 being presented in [36]. We also intend to integrate some of the functionality provided by the 3GPP ANDSF entity and the current 3GPP initiative standardizing IP Flow Mobility and seamless WLAN offload into our architecture.…”

Performance analysis of vertical handover techniques based on IEEE 802.21: Media independent handover standard

“…A similar scheme is presented in the work of Andersson et al 56 They also use a similar model for enhancing the functionality of the information service. The functionality of the information server is divided into three servers: (1) location‐to‐service translation, (2) service provider, and (3) independent evaluators.…”