Vertical Handover Decision Making Algorithms for 5G Heterogeneous Networks: A Review

Abstract

The wireless networks have been rapidly used in our daily lives, especially mobile wireless networks. An environment consisting of several networks such as WLAN, 4G-LTE, and 5G, is known as a heterogeneous network. Wireless networks are widely used to support various data services such as live video streaming, upload data, download data and cloud service depending upon their capacity and nature. When the mobile terminal is moving, the network availability will be changed. Therefore, the mobile terminal must perform handover from one network to another network in heterogeneous networks to maintain the call and quality of service (QoS). This process is known as Vertical Handover (VHO). A seamless handover is important to provide uninterrupted high quality service while performing the handover. To achieve this, various vertical handover decision making algorithms have been proposed and studied using advanced tools and proven concepts. This paper gives an overview of current research on handover decision making in fifth generation (5G) heterogeneous wireless networks. Keywords—Vertical Handover Decision Making, Heterogeneous Networks, Quality of Service, 5G, Seamless Handover