A User-Decided Service Model and Resource Management in a Cooperative WiMAX/HSDPA Network

Employing multiple radio access technologies such as WiMAX, HSDPA and Wi-Fi in a mobile network to provide users with more cost-effective communication services has long been a vision of many service network providers. In this paper, we propose a novel user-decided service model for a cooperative wireless network in which the radio resources of multiple wireless networks are collectively managed. Under the model, users are provided with multiple service options with different levels of service quality and charges. It is up to users to choose the most suitable service option (and access network) based on their personal preference and the amount of money they are willing to pay. We use a video streaming service in a WiMAX/HSDPA network as an example to illustrate the key concepts and resource management of our approach. The results of simulation show that, under the model, the service network can accommodate more users and provide higher user satisfaction than the traditional network-decided service model. It can also achieve higher resource utilization and revenues. This demonstrates the importance of defining the concept of user-decided service model in a cooperative heterogeneous networking environment.