Enhancing Wi-Fi with IEEE 802.11u for Mobile Data Offloading

Abstract

Apart from voice services, data made its foray in cellular networks with 2.5G networks. Today, with 3G network already in place, the data requirements of mobile subscribers is very high. With the increasing demand for mobile internet and rich data services such as streaming media for audio and video, this data requirement is expected to multifold in near future. Correspondingly the network operators have started looking for alternative means of satisfying these data needs. Among many alternatives, mobile data offloading (MDO) is the most promising one. This paper presents the extensive need, benefits, and technological solutions for MDO. Qualitatively, it is also shown that Wi-Fi, or 802.11 network is the most promising technology for MDO. Also, to further popularize Wi-Fi as a candidate network for MDO, IEEE published the enhancements to the base IEEE 802.11-2007 standard in the form of its ninth amendment (i.e. IEEE 802.11u). Restricting the scope to beacon frame only, we show how this amendment supports interworking of 802.11 network with external networks. We also show the benefit of 802.11u compatible Wi-Fi, as a candidate network for MDO, by modelling the problem of taking user's choice for assisting any vertical handover decision algorithm.