An NN-Based Access Network Selection Algorithm for Heterogeneous Networks

Next generation wireless network is expected to integrate multiple wireless technologies and provide mobile users with communication connectivity of different QoS requirements. However, the heterogeneity of access networks and the variety of user application requirements pose new challenges on access network selection scheme, i.e., selecting the optimal network for multi-interface mobile terminal (Mn) in the case that multiple networks are available. In this paper, the theory of neural network (NN) is applied in designing network selection scheme for heterogeneous networks and an NN-based access network selection algorithm is proposed, which models the network characteristics based on network and user sample data and then evaluates the performance of candidate networks based on current network and service features, the candidate network with the best service performance is then chosen as the destination network. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers better QoS performance comparing to the traditional algorithm.