Towards a Cognitive Handoff for the Future Internet: Model-driven Methodology and Taxonomy of Scenarios

A cognitive handoff is a multipurpose handoff that achieves many desirable features simultaneously; e.g., seamlessness, autonomy, security, correctness, adaptability, etc. But, the development of cognitive handoffs is a challenging task that has not been properly addressed in the literature. In this paper, we discuss the difficulties of developing cognitive handoffs and propose a new model-driven methodology for their systematic development. The theoretical framework of this methodology is the holistic approach, the functional decomposition method, the model-based design paradigm, and the theory of design as scientific problem-solving. We applied the proposed methodology and obtained the following results: (i) a correspondence between handoff purposes and quantitative environment information, (ii) a novel taxonomy of handoff mobility scenarios, and (iii) an original state-based model representing the functional behavior of the handoff process.