Analysis of IEEE 802.21 media independent handover with mobility management protocols for handover optimization

The accessibility of different wireless access technologies has become an essential aspect of mobile communications. Integrating heterogeneous wireless networks should guarantee the best quality of service (QoS) and cooperation among all layers. Seamless service is achieved by an optimized handover decision. Hence, the IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) standard provides sufficient information for handover operations across heterogeneous environments. The present work aims at the integration of available networks and analyzes user mobility behavior based on the IEEE 802.21 MIH standard and the cooperative Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) and Session Initiation Protocols (SIP) to assist fast handover operations. The handover performance metrics are compared with various existing mechanisms in terms of handover delay, packet loss, network load and different traffic classes. Simulation results prove that the combined PMIPv6-SIP protocol considerably minimize handover delay and improve the system throughput for both real-time and non-real-time QoS efficiency.