A network information service for quality-driven mobility

Fast growing data traffic over mobile networks pose many challenges for both end systems and networks to satisfy the required service levels of different applications. For end-users, the quality of experience (QoE), and consequently the underlying quality of service (QoS) are the most meaningful criteria for triggering handovers and selecting target base stations. However, difficulties in reliably measuring quality real-time have resulted in many QoS/QoE based mobility solutions being impractical. We propose a network information service that allows mobile devices to find suitable nearby base stations by indicating their capability to satisfy the required service level. Information services allow end systems to discover heterogeneous networks at or near their location. However, the current solutions do not enable assessing base station availability and their quality of service in different locations reliably enough. In our solution, end system performed QoS measurement (and possibly QoE estimation) results are stored in a spatial database within the information service as polygon geometries. Through a single query to the information service end systems can find a sufficient amount of information about base stations in range to make handover target decisions on quality of service basis. We observe that the solution can achieve quality improvements of up to 50% in dense heterogeneous networks.