Load balancing for cellular/WLAN integrated networks

The interworking between heterogeneous third-generation cellular networks and wireless local area networks is one promising evolution approach to fourth-generation wireless networks, which can exploit the complementary advantages of the cellular network and WLANs. Resource management for the 4G-oriented cellular/WLAN integrated network is an important open issue that deserves more research efforts. In this article we present a policy framework for resource management in a loosely coupled cellular/WLAN integrated network, where load balancing policies are designed to efficiently utilize the pooled resources of the network. A two-phase control strategy is adopted in the load balancing policies, in which call assignment is used to provide a statistical quality of service guarantee during the admission phase, and dynamic vertical handoff during the traffic service phase is used to minimize the performance variations. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate that the proposed load balancing solution achieves significant performance improvement over two other reference schemes