Evaluation of Vertical Handoff Decision Algorightms Based on MADM Methods for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

In the forthcoming heterogeneous wireless environment, the mobility management of users roaming between different wireless access technologies is a challenging and important technical issue. New mobile devices such as netbooks, smartphones and tablets allow users to perform vertical handoffs among different wireless networks. The multiple attribute decision making (MADM) methods are suitable tools to model and study the vertical handoff process. Hence, recently several MADM methods such as SAW, MEW, TOPSIS, GRA, ELECTRE, VIKOR and WMC have been proposed for vertical handoff. In this paper, we present an extensive performance evaluation and comparative study of the seven MAMD methods by means of numerical simulations in MATLAB. We evaluate the performance of each vertical handoff method under different applications such as voice, data, and cost-constrained connections. We also perform a sensitivity analysis and evaluate the computational complexity of each method in terms of number of floating point operations.