Intelligent handover decision based on fuzzy logic for heterogeneous wireless networks

An intelligent handover decision system (HDS) is essential to heterogeneous wireless mobile networks in order to fulfill user´s expectations in terms of universal and seamless services. With emerging real-time services in heterogeneous networking environment, including multiple QoS parameters in handover decision process seems essential. In this paper, fuzzy logic is applied to enhance the intelligence of HDS. A new fuzzy-based HDS design with the aim to reduce design complexity of fuzzy engine without sacrificing handover decision performance is proposed in the paper. The results show that, compared to non-fuzzy-based (i.e., SAW and AHP) and existing fuzzy-based decision techniques, the network selection performance of proposed HDS design is significantly better than SAW and AHP, and is superior to an existing fuzzy-based technique. The proposed HDS design is then enhanced by incorporating an adaptive mechanism enabling a further improvement in terms of the network selection performance.