Seleção de interfaces de acesso baseada em análise de contexto

Abstract

The demand for different applications and services on the Internet has grown dramatically in recent years. To meet this demand, various wireless communication technologies with different characteristics have been used to provide access these services. However, not always technology wireless access used is the most appropriate to the requirements of the applications and services or even the user's interest in issues such as access speed, financial cost and power consumption. The main issue is how to identify the best network and access interface that offers the best value for money, meeting user expectations and operating autonomously. In order to propose a solution to address this issue, this paper describes a new interface selection mechanism based on analysis of contextual information obtained from the user and the device. This mechanism, called CANS (Context-Aware Network Selection), is composed of an acquisition module of context information and selection strategies and management interfaces specific to each type of access technology. The CANS is designed to operate on computers that support the Linux operating system. The evaluation of the proposed mechanism is held in the real environment. The results show that the adoption of the proposed selection strategies enables the user to better exploit the advantages of access technologies in an environment, achieving a reduction in device power consumption and financial cost.