Performance evaluation of Vertical Handoff Algorithms

Different Vertical Handoff Algorithms (VHA) have been proposed in the literature recently. However, there is no consensus on how to evaluate performance of different VHA at the research community. Although some models have been proposed for evaluation of the VHA, this issue is a challenge because the VHA have evolved to become more sophisticated, thus the evaluation models must consider a variety of parameters. In this paper, we propose a new evaluation model for VHA that has been designed based on specific concepts taken from the multi-criteria evaluation and operational reliability. The proposed evaluation model allows analyzing VHA using measured values of some defined parameters, which can be obtained from simulating VHA on a network simulation tool. We present as a case study an evaluation of two VHA that shows the new model functionality and results. © 2010 IEEE.