Utility Decisions for QoE-QoS Driven Applications in Practical Mobile Broadband Networks

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design, experimental validation and evaluation of a utility based decision-making approach for wireless (mobile) broadband networks. We extend a utility function framework incorporating flow and user related parameters to be driven by both QoE, QoS parameters and utilize the (mobile) broadband infrastructure of the EU-project MONROE, in order to perform extensive realistic experiments, revealing the operation of the utility function design and quantifying its potentials. We utilize our decision-making approach in two QoE-QoS related applications, namely access network selection and load-balancing in wireless networks with multiple available network interface capabilities. Through experimentation and analysis we investigate the impact of various network aspects, such as mobility, network provider, etc., on access interface switching and relevant applications. Such results can be further exploited for improving the QoE in mobile broadband networks.