A Novel Model on Curve Fitting and Particle Swarm Optimization for Vertical Handover in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The vertical handover mechanism is an essential issue in the heterogeneous wireless environments where selection of an efficient network that provides seamless connectivity involves complex scenarios. This study uses two modules that utilize the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to predict and make an intelligent vertical handover decision. In this paper, we predict the received signal strength indicator parameter using the curve fitting based particle swarm optimization (CF-PSO) and the RBF neural networks. The results of the proposed methodology compare the predictive capabilities in terms of coefficient determination ( R 2 ) and mean square error (MSE) based on the validation dataset. The results show that the effect of the model based on the CF-PSO is better than that of the model based on the RBF neural network in predicting the received signal strength indicator situation. In addition, we present a novel network selection algorithm to select the best candidate access point among the various access technologies based on the PSO. Simulation results indicate that using CF-PSO algorithm can decrease the number of unnecessary handovers and prevent the “Ping-Pong” effect. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the multiobjective particle swarm optimization based method finds an optimal network selection in a heterogeneous wireless environment.