Fast Handoff for 802.11 Wireless Network

Obay H. Sabrie, Hasan S. Hasan, Rosli Salleh

.

DOI: 10.4236/cn.2011.34029                

Abstract

Whenever the mobile station moves from the range of one access point and comes to the range of another access point a handoff process is occurred. This process takes a long time when using the IEEE 802.11 standard handoff and this delay affect the real time and multimedia applications. This paper provides a layer 2 handoff process for the IEEE 802.11 that is able to eliminate the scanning delay and reduce the total handoff delay.

Keywords

Handoff Delay, IEEE 802.11, Layer 2 Handoff, WLAN

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	D. Murray, M. Dixon and T. Koziniec, “Scanning Delays in 802.11 Networks,” The 2007 International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies, Cardiff, 2007, pp. 255-260. doi:10.1109/NGMAST.2007.4343430
[2]	A. Mishra, M. Shin and W. A. Arbaush, “Context Caching Using Neighbor Graphs for Fast Handoffs in a Wireless Network,” 23rd Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, INFOCOM 2004, Hongkong, 2004, p. 361. doi:10.1109/INFCOM.2004.1354508
[3]	IEEE 802.11, “IEEE Standard for Information Technology Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems Local and Metropolitan Area Networks Specific Requirements,” The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, 2007.
[4]	P.-J. Huang, Y.-C. Tseng and K.-C. Tsai, “A Fast Handoff Mechanism for IEEE 802.11 and IAPP Networks,” Proceedings of 63rd IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, Melbourne, 2006, pp. 966-970. doi:10.1109/VETECS.2006.1682968
[5]	S. Pack, J. Choi, T. Kwon and Y. Choi, “Fast Handoff Support in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks,” IEEE Communications Surveys, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2007, pp. 2-12.
[6]	S. Sangho, G. F. Andrea, R. A. Singh and S. Henning, “Reducing MAC Layer Handoff Latency in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs,” Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Mobility Management\& Wireless Access Protocols, Philadelphia, 2004, p. 19. doi:10.1145/1023783.1023788
[7]	Y. M. Allawi, K. Min-Gon and K. Minho, “Advanced Handoff Mechanism for Delay Sensitive Applications in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN,” 10th International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology, Gangwon-Do, 17-20 February 2008, pp. 1517-1520. doi:10.1109/ICACT.2008.4494067
[8]	A. Mishra, M. Shin and W. Arbaugh, “An Empirical Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 MAC Layer Handoff Process,” ACM, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2003, p. 93. doi:10.1145/956981.956990
[9]	O. H. Sabrie and R. Salleh, “Enhancing Handoff Process Using IAPP with Caching Techniques,” Journal of Applied Sciences, 2009, Vol. 9, No. 22, pp. 3999-4005. doi:10.3923/jas.2009.3999.4005
[10]	C.-C. Tseng, K.-H. Chi, M.-D. Hsieh and H.-H. Chang, “Location-Based Fast Handoff for 802.11 Networks,” IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2005, pp. 304-306.
[11]	S. Minho, M. Arunesh and A. A. William, “Improving the Latency of 802.11 Hand-offs Using Neighbor Graphs,” Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, ACM, Boston, 2004, pp. 70-83. doi:10.1145/990064.990076
[12]	V. M. Chintala and Z. Qing-An, “Novel MAC Layer Handoff Schemes for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs,” Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, IEEE, Kowloon, 2007, pp. 4435-4440. doi:10.1109/WCNC.2007.808
[13]	IEEE 802.11F, “IEEE Trial-Use Recommended Practice for Multi-Vendor Access Point Interoperability via an Inter-Access Point Protocol Across Distribution Systems Supporting IEEE 802.11TM Operation,” The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, 2003.
[14]	O. Jaeouk, M. Pedro and M. Hiroyuki, “Replacing Channel Scanning with Multiple Authentication for Fast Handoff in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks,” Proceedings of the 2007 ACM CoNEXT Conference, New York, 2007, Article No: 40.
[15]	L. J. Zhang and S. Pierre, “Optimizing the Performance of Handoff Management in Wireless LANs,” International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, Vol. 8, No. 7, 2008, pp. 87-94.
[16]	H.-S. Kim, S.-H. Park, C.-S. Park, J.-W. Kim and S.-J. Ko, “Selective Channel Scanning for Fast Handoff in Wireless LAN Using Neighbor Graph,” Proceedings of the 2004 International Technical Conference on Circuits/Systems, Computers and Communications (ITC-CSCC 2004), Vol. 3260/2004, 2004, pp. 1-4. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-30199-8_16
[17]	K. Daehan, S. Junho, K. Seungwoon and M. Jeonghoon, ‘Reducing the Channel Scanning Latency for Intermittently Connected IEEE 802.11 Networks in Vehicular Environments,” Vehicular Technology Conference, IEEE, Singapore, 2008, pp. 3072-3076. doi:10.1109/VETECS.2008.334