A Network-Assisted User-Centric WiFi-Offloading Model for Maximizing Per-User Throughput in a Heterogeneous Network

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel network-assisted user-centric WiFi-offloading model for maximizing per-user throughput in a heterogeneous network. In the proposed WiFi-offloading model, the heterogeneous network collects network information, such as the number of users in WiFi networks and their traffic load. Then, the network decides the specific portion of traffic to be transmitted via WiFi networks, i.e., phi*, which maximizes the per-user throughput. After informing the phi* to users, users offload their traffic with the probability of phi* and achieve the maximum per-user throughput while offloading more traffic into WiFi networks. Through the proposed WiFi-offloading model, a user and the heterogeneous network achieve 20% higher throughput than the on-the-spot WiFi-offloading model in a dense traffic environment.