Mobility Management in Heterogeneous Wireless Access Network with IEEE 802.21 Services

Abstract

Roaming across different access technologies permit people to access Internet via heterogeneous wireless networks such as WLAN, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and Beyond 3G networks. The convergence of heterogeneous wireless access networks with handoff support enable mobile nodes to freely move in and out of any available networks without breaking the connection to the Internet. In this paper, an Adaptive Cross Layer handoff Management for Future Generation Wireless Networks is presented and an efficient approach in optimizing the handoff decision procedure between WLAN and WiMAXnetworks utilizing IEEE 802.21 media independent handover functions (MIHFs) is proposed. This is expected to support seamless mobility while reducing handoff latency and call dropping probability for optimal user experience.