Network selection using AHP for fast moving vehicles in heterogeneous networks

Abstract

In today’s world, there are various means of accessing the Internet such as cellular, wireless local area network (WLAN) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), etc., for the mobile users. Also, various applications demand different quality of service (QoS) parameters. But for seamless connectivity in the case of fast moving vehicles, velocity of vehicle becomes an important issue. Traditional schemes trigger the handover process based on signal strength. These schemes do not incorporate the network parameters and user preferences required for optimal vertical handover. In this paper, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method has been used for network selection in heterogeneous environments for moving vehicles. The method has been applied for various types of applications like conversational, streaming, interactive, and background applications. From the results, it has been found that WLAN’s performance degrades significantly when the vehicles are moving at higher velocities while Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems (UMTS) performs best for fast moving vehicles.