Multi-connection and rate allocation in heterogeneous wireless networks

Heterogeneous wireless network (HWN) technology has emerged as an important option for the next generation mobile network, where mobile client (MC) are capable of simultaneously connecting to multiple access networks for better quality of services (QoS) at a lower cost. Different from a conventional HWN that uses a single connection and performs vertical handover, we observe the performance of MCs that use multiple interfaces simultaneously. We adjust the traffic rate over different interfaces with a proposed rate allocation algorithm, with an objective to optimize multi-user performance. Extensive simulation has been performed to validate effectiveness of using multi-connection in a HWN.