Efficient wireless network selection by using multi-armed bandit algorithm for mobile terminals

Abstract

Mobile wireless communication demand has increased rapidly in recent years, and advanced mobile devices such as smartphones have been widely deployed. Those devices are generally capable of connecting various wireless networks such as cellular networks and wireless LANs. Due to the software and hardware constraint of mobile devices, it is necessary to develop efficient and lightweight algorithms to select wireless networks. Previous studies have shown that multi-armed bandit algorithms can efficiently select wireless channel in cognitive radio. In this paper, we propose an efficient wireless network selection technique by using a multi-armed bandit algorithm called tug-of-war (TOW). We implement the proposed algorithm to a wireless device and show the effectiveness of the proposed method by experimental demonstrations.