Survey of Network Selection and Vertical Handover Techniques in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Wireless communications are extremely important segment of telecommunications. There are many available wireless technologies like 4G, 5G, WiFi, WiMAX to end users. User communication devices are often capable to support multiple wireless technologies. Thus, vertical handover (VHO) between different wireless technologies and network selection become important to user from economical and coverage points of view. In recent years VHO and network selection are even more important as satellite communications are seen as extension to terrestrial wireless communications. This paper provides survey of state-of-the-art of the currently available network selection and VHO techniques and procedures, giving deeper insight into the mathematical models and algorithms of each, and offering the analysis and comparison of their performance with their pros and cons.