Client-Centric Access Device Selection for Heterogeneous QoS Requirements in Beyond 5G IoT Networks

The expected manifolds increase in the traffic and the massive number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices would be a challenge to ensure a certain Quality of Service (QoS) in Beyond 5G (B5G) networks. Due to the increased availability of processing and energy resources and heterogeneous QoS requirements in modern IoT nodes, a client-centric access device selection approach for QoS provisioning in multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs) scenario is proposed in this paper. The proposed algorithm provides the ability to specify node-specific QoS requirements at each node, a better access device selection, and improved network scalability. For experimental evaluation, a hybrid indoor network consisting of Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) and Light Fidelity (LiFi) RATs has been considered. Experimental results show that the proposed technique outperforms several conventional client-based access device selection approaches by up to 32.66% in network emulation experiments and up to 50% in hardware experimentation. The contribution of this paper includes the proposed algorithm, its complexity and game-theory based convergence analyses, evaluation of the proposed algorithm using network emulation and hardware-based setups, and LiFi channel analysis. The analyses and results imply that the proposed algorithm could be utilized in next-generation IoT networks as it performs better than conventionally used access device selection techniques for QoS provisioning.