Measuring auto switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data networks in an urban area

Abstract

To preserve consistent throughput, smartphones are equipped with a network switch feature (handover in heterogeneous networks). Frequent switching is often blamed to be a QoE downgrader in populated areas. In this paper, we measured auto switch occurrences between Wi-Fi and mobile data networks. We deployed an Android monitoring application for 89 participants and collected network status information up to 10 days long. We observed that auto switch occurred on average 2.53 times per hour and RTT decreased as the smartphone preferred to stay in Wi-Fi. Also, 68% of all users connected to Wi-Fi longer than the mobile data networks.