Improvement of Handoff Performance Using Prefetched AP Information in IEEE 802.11

Abstract

Key Words : handoff, handover, IEEE 802.11, access point, handoff latency ABSTRACT This paper proposes the improved handoff mechanism for IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs. When a wireless mobile node moves out of the coverage of its currently associated AP(Access Point) and needs to be re-associated with a new AP, a handoff procedure is initiated. Channel scanning process during a handoff procedure occupies over 90% of total handoff latency. Long latency leads to many packet losses and service discontinuity, which degrades wireless network performance. This paper describes about the new mechanism to improve handoff performance by skipping channel scanning during a handoff procedure. In oerder for that, acquires neighboring AP information such as its address, location, channel number in use, the number of associated nodes before handoff, and delivers the information to its associated mobile nodes. The mobile nodes can reduce handoff latency and perform more exact handoff using the delivered AP information. We have conducted simulations to analyze our proposal's performance and confirmed that handoff latency and the number of handoff occurrences are decreased.