International Journal of Business Data Communications and Networking, 6(1), 1-16, January-March 2010 1 Copyright © 2010, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Keywords: Combinatorial Optimization, Handoff Management, Heterogeneous Network Planning, Meta- Heuristics, Overlay Network, Simulated Annealing INtroDUCtIoN As various multimedia applications with differ- ent quality of service (QoS) requirements are becoming popular, provisioning of seamless wireless service to the end customers is becom- ing a business challenge for a wireless service provider. Due to technological constraints, it is not possible to meet the varied demands of the customers with a single wireless technol- Handoff Cost Minimization and Planning of Next Generation Heterogeneous Integrated overlay Networks: Meta Heuristics Based approach Ayan Paul, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, India Madhubanti Maitra, Jadavpur University, India Swarup Mandal, XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, India Samir K. Sadhukhan, Indian Institute of Management, India aBstraCt Next-generation wireless technologies have seen a paradigm shift as multiple standards and protocols emerge almost every day. Each standard has its limitations and merits, which can be either masked or complemented by other standards. For commercialization, various services should be provided in a cost effective manner, compelling a service provider to roll out integrated next generation wireless networks to exploit the virtues of each. This paper discusses the planning problem of overlay network integrating, particularly 3G, WiMAX and WLAN, establishing proper connectivity among the three networks. In the proposed planning approach, the authors focused on the initial phase and have minimized the cost for vertical handoff generated, and the cost for wire line connection amongst the various network gateways of the overlay hierarchy. To validate the planning problem, the simulated annealing (SA), a well-cited meta-heuristic H-II are presented and compared with a variant of distance based planning (DBP). DOI: 10.4018/jbdcn.2010010101