Effect of normalization techniques in VIKOR method for network selection in heterogeneous networks

Abstract

Beyond 3G or 4G or Fourth generation wireless networks is an era of heterogeneous networks where a large number of wireless networks having different quality of service and features are present simultaneously. To provide ubiquitous access to end users in such environment, vertical handoff mechanism is deployed where an active call or session is transferred from one access point to another depending on the services required by the end user. This optimal network selection among large number of networks available requires consideration of multiple criteria like cost, delay, jitter, available bandwidth etc. To incorporate maximum number of quality of service (Qos) parameters MADM methods provide a promising solution. But MADM methods suffer from two major problems; number of handovers and ranking abnormality. In this paper VIKOR MADM method has been analyzed with various normalization techniques to mitigate the effect of large number of handovers and ranking abnormality.