Ensuring quality services on WiFi networks for offloaded cellular traffic

Abstract

One of the more obvious ways to reduce the volume of data traffic on cellular networks is through the use of handover to fixed networks via WiFi and other radio channels. With the growing focus on emerging 5G concepts and technologies, there has been a corresponding focus on the functional mechanisms needed to achieve this handover in a timely fashion. Much less attention has been paid to the practicalities, in terms of ensuring that the end-user experiences little or no loss in the quality of their network services when the handover occurs. In this paper, a methodology for managing such handover traffic in a WiFi network is proposed. The approach integrates and leverages aspects of three quality control mechanisms to enable stable, higher quality delivery of enhanced WiFi network services. It combines i) information adduced from a theoretical model with ii) a low complexity Quality of Experience metric that is quick and easy to estimate and iii) a queue management scheme.