An Experimental Study of Location Assisted Proactive Handover

Traditionally, signal-to-noise ratio of a mobile determines the handoff dynamics of the mobile. But in certain cases, precise location of the mobile augmented by information services, such as IEEE 802.21 MIS, can expedite the handoff with similar performance results. We illustrate an experimental system that takes advantage of the mobile's relative location with the neighboring access point to perform proactive handoff. It keeps track of the current location of the mobile and then uses the information from the neighboring networks to help perform the proactive handoff. Proactive handover technique helps the mobile to communicate with these networks before the handover is complete thereby reducing the delay and packet loss. In some cases, location-assisted handover could prove to be more useful compared to the handover technique based on signal-noise-ratio.