An Access Network Selection Algorithm for Terrestrial-Satellite Networks Based on a QoS Guarantee

Considering the communication requirements of different monitoring services and the performance of different access networks, to ensure the quality of service and reliability of sensor networks, we propose an access network selection algorithm based on a quality-of-service (QoS) guarantee. According to the service requirements, the attributes that affect the terminal access options are determined. Then, utility functions are designed for normalizing the attribute values of the network. In addition, we construct a weight calculation model that combines subjective and objective factors. Finally, the algorithm calculates the relative closeness between each pair of networks by the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) and sorts the candidate networks to obtain the best candidate network of each monitoring terminal to access. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively meet the communication needs of different monitoring services, ensures network reliability, and can improve the utilization rate of network resources.