An integrated data offloading approach for mobile users in urban environments

Rapid continual growth in the number of people who own mobile devices and rising demand for multi-media content increase the pressure on deployed wireless networks in general and on cellular networks in particular to support high quality of service. Service providers adopt various strategies such as imposing data-caps on users in a bid to reduce loads on their networks. End-user driven data offloading has the potential to reduce loads on service providers networks, increase the end-users overall data transfer rates and to reduce energy consumption by the mobile device due to networking operations. However, in the context of mobile users, efficient network detection and establishment of useful connections to WiFi networks is complicated by the speed at which users are travelling and the severely limited, practical range of the network coverage areas. In this paper we propose an integrated mobile device-centric approach to the problem of data offloading to WiFi networks that focuses on when a mobile user device should scan for alternative wireless networks and conditions under which they should connect to a detected network.