| With the growth of data-capable, multi-interface mobile devices, lot of research work is being done on network selection in heterogeneous environment. Researchers have proposed policies for network selection which differ for various reasons, i.e. the load of networks, number and types of wireless networks considered, and preferences of users. As a result, the applicability and efficiency of those policies depend upon specific circumstances. We propose a new concept that will help in utilizing these policies in a manner that provides better results in longer run and various situations. We have a pool of policies available, and our proposed method will select the most appropriate policy according to the current state of user. We modeled this problem as a Markov Decision Process.;We also propose an alternative mechanism that would facilitate a user to connect to the most appropriate network in a way that is beneficial to the overall network and its users. A trusted third party entity receives handover requests from a set of users along with their preferences, takes into consideration current network state of available service providers, and assigns each user to an appropriate network resource. We call this mechanism "Network Assisted Network Selection (NANS)" and it combines network-based, service-based and user-based criteria for network selection, and uses Generalized Assignment Problem (GAP) to assign the network resources to a set of users.;Mobile Access Gateway (MAG) is a component of Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) which serves a local geographical area and mobile nodes in its vicinity may attach to it to get the mobility services from its controlling PMIPV6 domain. Since MAG is the point of attachment of mobile nodes, negotiated and guaranteed quality of service (QoS) is affected in case of service disruptions and overload of the MAG. To avoid and minimize the degradation of quality of service, we propose effective mechanisms to share the load of affected MAG with the MAG(s) that are working under normal conditions. We propose to handover certain mobile nodes to other MAGs depending upon their geographical serving area, current capacity, MN's location, QoS profile, direction of movement and multi-interface capability. |
