Multi-hop Extensions to Heterogeneous Access Network Selection

This paper evaluates an access selection architecture able to handle heterogeneous technologies. We establish a generic access selection algorithm, which assigns different weights to the constraints established by both the network and the terminal. In addition, we improve the traditional operation by allowing multi-hop extensions, by means of which an end-user may reach an Access Element (i.e. base station) through other nodes willing to relay traffic. The results show that the multi-hop extensions are beneficial, not only from the point of view of the end-user, but also from the perspective of the network operator, since they allow an increase on the overall network throughput.