A proposal for dynamic WLAN selection for mobile data offloading in heterogeneous network

In this paper, we present a new Wi-Fi roaming and selection scheme as a solution for macro-cell traffic offloading. The idea is to take advantage of the Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) policies and the IEEE 802.11k standard for Wi-Fi access point (AP) selection process. The ANDSF can provide the list of candidate APs with preferred selection policies. However, due to the fact that ANDSF's selection policies are static and are not based on the real- time network condition, it cannot be considered as a solution for traffic steering and offloading issue in heterogeneous network. In our proposed scheme for Wi-Fi offloading, we address this issue by taking into account the real-time traffic load of Wi-Fi AP as one criterion for selection. We simulate and verify the proposed scheme on NCTUNS 6.0. The simulation result shows that our scheme can effectively offload the data traffic from cellular network to Wi-Fi and improve the overall network throughput.