Adaptive handoff scheme for heterogeneous IP wireless networks

Recent technological advances allow mobile devices to be equipped with multiple wireless interfaces. Moreover, the coexistence of diverse but complementary architectures and wireless access technologies is one of the major trends in 4G or next-generation wireless networks (4G/NGWN). In this context, the selection of an appropriate interface to ensure that a mobile node (MN) remains connected to the network is a challenging issue for seamless roaming. Furthermore, mobility management as well as the integration and interworking of existing wireless systems are a complex task due to their specific characteristics. This paper proposes an efficient handoff protocol, called Handoff Protocol for Integrated Networks (HPIN), which alleviates services disruption during handoff in 4G/NGWN. HPIN is based on a novel handoff decision function and carries out localized mobility, fast handoff and access networks discovery. Performance evaluation based on numerical results shows that the proposed protocol performs better than existing schemes.