Framework for Generic Context- and Policy-Based Traffic Distribution in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks: Black Rider

The requirements on networks referring to bandwidth, QoS and mobility are increasing because of the huge traffic growth, the increasing amount of mobile devices and the always-on-demand from subscribers, no matter if the end user devices are stationary or moving. The predicted growth and the fulfilment of the QoS and mobility requirements must be accompanied in the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) infrastructure, by enabling an appropriate management and distribution of the traffic. This paper proposes a new framework for generic context- and policy-based traffic distribution in heterogeneous wireless networks, called Black Rider. It provides a detailed description of the architecture and a selection of use cases that illustrate how the framework can be exploited to gain benefits in important areas, such as (re-) attach-, handover-, and offloading behaviour, energy consumption and geolocation.