An SDN-Based Approach for Load Balance in Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks
Wenqiang Tang, Qing Min Liao · 2014
The next generation of wireless networks will integrate multiple radio access technologies, which constitute the heterogeneous network. The performance of the network and user experience will depend on a good use of the radio resource heavily. With the development of mobile Internet, a large amount of intelligent terminal applications emerge. Specifically, the multimedia applications, which will take up a lot of bandwidth, present a challenge for the load capacity of the heterogeneous networks. Software Defined Networking (SDN) will give us a solution to the load balancing of the radio access network (RAN). Firstly, we design a SDN-based load balancer to which we can apply different load balancing algorithm. Secondly, we propose a utility-based load balancing algorithm which can take both the RAN status and user needs into consideration. Finally, simulation results show that the RAN load can be balanced while giving users a good experience.