Dynamic Network Selection in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks: A User-centric Scheme for Improved Delivery

The increasing tendency toward the extreme network densification has motivated network operators to leverage spectrum across multiple radio access networks, in order to significantly enhance spectral efficiency, quality of service, as well as network capacity. There is therefore a substantial need to develop innovative network selection mechanisms that consider energy efficiency while meeting application quality requirements. In this context, in accordance with the new trends foreseen for 5G systems, we propose a user-centric scheme for efficient network selection. Our solution accounts for network characteristics and application requirements, as well as for different user objectives by assigning them different weights and dynamically updating them. Numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed solution and its ability to grasp the conflicting nature of users' objectives while achieving an excellent level of fairness among them.