A Markov Decision Process based flow assignment framework for heterogeneous network access

We consider a scenario where devices with multiple networking capabilities access networks with heterogeneous characteristics. In such a setting, we address the problem of efficient utilization of multiple access networks by devices via optimal assignment of traffic flows with given utilities to different networks. We develop and analyze a device middleware functionality that monitors network characteristics and employs a Markov Decision Process (MDP) based control scheme that in conjunction with stochastic characterization of the available bit rate and delay of the networks generates an optimal policy for allocation of flows to different networks. The optimal policy maximizes, under available bit rate and delay constraints on the access networks, a discounted reward which is a function of the flow utilities. The flow assignment policy is periodically updated and is consulted by the flows to dynamically perform network selection during their lifetimes. We perform measurement tests to collect traces of available bit rate and delay characteristics on Ethernet and WLAN networks on a work day in a corporate work environment. We implement our flow assignment framework in ns-2 and simulate the system performance for a set of elastic video-like flows using the collected traces. We demonstrate that the MDP based flow assignment policy leads to significant enhancement in the QoS provisioning (higher rate allocation, lower packet delays and packet loss rates) for the flows and better access network utilization, as compared to policies that allocate flows to different networks using greedy approaches or heuristics like average available bit rate on the networks.