Patent ID: 8504037
Filing Date: 2013-08-06
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A handover method in a plurality of wireless networks, comprising: selecting one or more candidate networks from the plurality of wireless networks available to a mobile terminal of a user; calculating the latest connection time with a serving network currently serving the mobile terminal; deriving a history utility function based on the latest connection time; deriving system utility functions of the candidate networks in consideration of the user and system environments; deriving selection functions for the candidate networks using the history utility function and the system utility functions; and selecting one of the candidate networks having the greatest selection function value as a target network for handover using the selection functions, wherein the latest connection time indicates the time elapsed to the present time from a completion of a last handover of the mobile terminal to the serving network, wherein a value of the history utility function for the serving network decreases as the latest connection time increases and a value of the history utility function for wireless networks other than the serving network is zero, wherein the system utility functions indicate satisfaction levels of the user to the respective candidate networks and are determined based on the system environments including capacity, delay, path loss and monetary cost of the respective candidate networks and user preferences for the system environments, and wherein the selection function for each of the candidate networks is a linear combination of the system utility function for said each of the candidate networks and the history utility function.