The MIH-based vertical handover method for Wi-Fi and WiMAX integrated network

Abstract

The integrated network of WLAN and WMAN can take advantage of them to offer high quality service. Vertical seamless handover between different wireless systems is possible while the internet's quality of service (QoS) mechanisms are difficult to integrate into the handover procedures. IEEE 802.21 media independent handover (MIH) is developing standards to enable handover and interoperability between heterogeneous network types including both 802 and non 802 networks. This protocol defines method to provide the link layer intelligence and other related network information to the upper layers to optimise handovers between heterogeneous media. In this paper, we propose a scheme to make vertical handover between IEEE 802.11 WLAN network and IEEE 802.16 worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) network based on IEEE.21 MIH. We propose the method to support vertical handover using MIH for two different scenarios. According to the simulation results, this proposal can decrease system overhead caused by handover and provides session continuity for internet users.