Title: Design and evaluation of a decentralised information service architecture for IEEE 802.21 networks

Authors: Fábio Buiati; Javier García Villalba; Delfín Rupérez Cañas; Daniel Corujo; Rui L. Aguiar

Addresses: Grupo de Análisis, Seguridad y Sistemas (GASS), Facultad de Informática, Despacho 431, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial (DISIA), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Calle Profesor José García Santesmases s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain ' Grupo de Análisis, Seguridad y Sistemas (GASS), Facultad de Informática, Despacho 431, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial (DISIA), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Calle Profesor José García Santesmases s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain ' Grupo de Análisis, Seguridad y Sistemas (GASS), Facultad de Informática, Despacho 431, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial (DISIA), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Calle Profesor José García Santesmases s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain ' Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal ' Instituto de Telecomunicações, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

Abstract: The deployment of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, WIMAX and LTE brings to the mobile user the opportunity to switch from one network to another, in a seamless manner. To accomplish this, the user must be able to discover which types of network connectivity are available. The IEEE 802.21 standard specifies a media independent information service (MIIS) providing capabilities for discovering network information within a geographical area. The representation and distribution of mobility information in heterogeneous networks are a big challenge, especially in multi-operator environments. In this paper, we introduce a decentralised information service architecture that improves the user experience and ensures scalability for large system deployments. Additionally, an evaluation using the NS-2 network simulator is presented. The results demonstrate that our proposal outperforms the existing approaches in terms of query delay, users optimal handovers and communication overhead, contributing to a traffic decrease at the operators core network and internet.

Keywords: mobility information; IEEE 802.21 networks; heterogeneous networks; media independent handover; ubiquitous computing; decentralised information services; information service architecture; simulation; query delay; optimal handover; communication overhead.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2014.061027

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2014 Vol.15 No.4, pp.275 - 288

Received: 17 Oct 2012
Accepted: 16 Apr 2013
Published online: 24 May 2014 *

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