Prediction and QoS Enhancement in New Generation Cellular Networks With Mobile Hosts: A Survey on Different Protocols and Conventional/Unconventional Approaches

Nowadays, interest in mobile communications is growing rapidly due to the high level of device development, which permits the achievement of good objectives in terms of quality of service (QoS) for user satisfaction during active data flows. The increasing mobile client populations use different mobile devices to access the wireless medium and many applications are being developed to satisfy eager client requirements. Independently on the considered architecture (WLAN, UMTS, LTE, etc.), mobility represents a great advantage for user comfort, but it needs to be managed in an adequate manner in order to avoid service disruptions or unacceptable degradation of the perceived quality. In this paper, the concept of cell-mobility prediction is considered and we show how the analysis of user behavior, in terms of mobility, can be exploited to enhance QoS levels in current communications among mobile hosts and base stations (coverage cells, in general). This paper surveys different unconventional approaches and protocols, showing how it is possible to consider in-advance bandwidth reservations to achieve service continuity, avoiding call droppings during active sessions. First, we present the importance of in-advance reserving in wireless cellular networks, then we discuss the existing protocols and approaches for determining the most suitable future cells.