Clustering-cum-Handover Management Scheme for improved Internet access in high-density mobile wireless environments

Abstract

The accessibility of ubiquitous communication services from various wireless technologies has become essential in the current Internet of everything (IoE) era. It is crucial for mobile users residing in densely populated areas to get the provision of uninterrupted connectivity and seamless services. To this end, this paper provides a mechanism for uninterrupted connectivity to a maximum number of users with the available resources. We propose a master/slave model in a 4G-Wi-Fi integrated network. Our novel Clustering-cum-Handover Management Scheme (CHMS) for dynamic cluster management together with the handover management in high density mobile wireless environment dispenses the unrestricted movement without connectivity loss and quality sacrifice. The dynamically configured clustering protocol of CHMS provides reduced cluster formation overhead and balances the load between cluster heads. To make smart selections, a distance-based energy-efficient clustering scheme is proposed for calculating the chances of a mobile device to become a cluster head. The seamless handover mechanism of CHMS manages the mobility of both the cluster head and cluster member while considering the limited energy of devices. It also achieves high network throughput and reduced end-to-end delay during handovers. Furthermore, our evaluation shows that CHMS provides application-specific quality of service even in highly dense wireless environments.