Association Control in Mobile Wireless Networks

—As mobile nodes roam in a wireless network, they continuously associate with different access points and perform handoff operations. However, these handoffs can potentially incur interruptions for interactive applications and increase the energy usage. To alleviate such negative impacts, we present novel association control algorithms that can minimize the frequency of handoffs occurred to mobile users. Specifically, we show that a greedy LookAhead algorithm is optimal in the offline setting, where the user’s future mobility is known. Inspired by such optimality, we further propose two online algorithms, namely LookBack and Track, that operate without any future mobility information. Instead, they seek to predict the lifetime of an association using randomization and statistical approaches, respectively. We evaluate the performance of these algorithms using both analysis and trace-driven simulations. The results show that the simple LookBack algorithm has surprisingly a competit...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Minkyong Kim, Zhen Liu, Srinivasan Parthasarathy 0002, Dimitrios E. Pendarakis, Hao Yang
• Keywords: Algorithm, Communications, Future Mobility, Greedy Lookahead Algorithm, INFOCOM 2008