Location assisted energy efficiency for multi-interfaced mobile terminals

It is necessary to re-think the current access selection polices to the simultaneously available wireless networks, whose number is growing, and the appropriate management mechanisms, to enhance the experience for the final user, for example in terms of QoS and energy efficiency. The IEEE 802.21 standard introduces link layer intelligence as well as related network information to upper layers in order to optimize handovers between networks of different technologies (WiMAX, Wi-Fi, 3GPP, etc.). As the integration of multiple wireless interfaces in mobile terminals becomes ordinary it is important to efficiently manage those interfaces. Not only to conveniently provide the requested services to the user, but also to do that in an energy efficient way in order to allow higher mobility by extending the battery life of its mobile terminal. In this paper the IEEE 802.21 standard is used while considering handovers between WiMAX and Wi-Fi, through an implementation in ns-2 introducing a simple, but effective, location-assisted energy saving technique.