Network selection for one-to-many services in 3G-broadcasting cooperative networks

The beyond 3G or 4G mobile systems envisions heterogeneous infrastructures comprising diverse wireless systems, e,g., 2G, 3G, DVB, WLAN, and various transmission approaches, e.g., "one-to-one" and "one-to-many". In this context, a network selection (NS) problem emerges regarding determining the appropriate access network (AN), as users are reachable through several different ANs. This paper addresses the issue of provisioning "one-to-many" services over heterogeneous wireless networks in terms of how to choose the AN that satisfies the bandwidth requirement of services, while maximizing the system profit obtained in the combined network. A heterogeneous network comprising multicast broadcast multimedia service (MBMS) of the third generation mobile terrestrial network and the digital video broadcasting transmission system for handheld terminals (DVB-H) is adopted in this study. Both networks cooperate and complement each other to improve the resource usage and to support "one-to-many" services with their multicast and broadcast transmission capabilities. Based on this architecture, an algorithm framework is defined and proposed to solve the NS problem for the "one-to-many" services. Six schemes based on the algorithm framework are then evaluated by simulation.