Dynamic load balancing architecture in heterogeneous wireless network environment

This paper discusses load balancing architecture among heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs). Load balancing is an important issue for efficient use of radio resources not only in a single network but among different Radio Access Technologies (RATs) in HWNs. Cooperative management of radio resources among heterogeneous RATs is considered to reduce imbalance of utilization of radio resources and enhance availability of the system. For effective load balancing, we define a “community” concept, in which radio resources of various RATs are managed together. Radio resource management functional entities of RATs cooperatively work in the community. We present a load balancing architecture applied to 3GPP LTE, WiBro and WLAN and describe architectural considerations. We also present a straightforward load balancing algorithm that takes account of bandwidth usage and received signal to noise ratio. The load balancing algorithm of community radio resource management enhances utilization of radio resources and reduces call blocking probability of individual RATs in the community and further enhances average performance of the whole community.