Common radio resource management for access selection in multi-access networks

In this paper, we address the problem of access selection in multi-access networks. As admission and handover process durations are in the order of seconds and decentralized decisions are made over multiple cells spread over the network, such decisions have to be made quickly and in a distributed manner while keeping the network stable and its load balanced. We propose a utility-based approach to access selection. In this model, policies governing the network operations are embodied in the design of marginal utility functions and decisions are made using minimal computations. Developed algorithms are then evaluated using a Java-based multi-access simulator called MANSim that we developed.