Quality Dependent Vertical Handover Decision Algorithm for Fourth Generation (4G) Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Future wireless networks must be able to coordinate services within a diverse-network environment. One of the challenging problems for coordination is vertical handoff, which is the decision for a mobile node to handoff between different types of networks. While traditional handoff is based on received signal strength comparisons, vertical handoff must evaluate additional factors, such as monetary cost, security, power consumption, network conditions, and user preferences. In this paper, several optimizations are proposed for the execution of vertical handoff decision algorithms, with the goal of maximizing the quality of service experienced by each user.