Location Assisted Handover Optimization for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Mobile users typically experience better connectivity if their mobile device performs handover to an available WiFi network rather than using a cellular network. For a moving user the window of opportunity is limited and the timing of the handover is therefore crucial. In this paper, the authors propose two location-based look-ahead handover prediction algorithms that are based on the assumption that a database of expected throughput for a given location of all networks is available. Their results show that the proposed look-ahead algorithms outperform the hysteresis-based and "Always cellular-connected", but also show that the look-ahead algorithms are highly dependent on accurate movement tracking and movement prediction systems. The heuristic algorithm is also shown to achieve the highest throughput for large look-ahead windows.