Minimization of handoff failure and cellular traffic by introducing IEEE 802.11b WLAN router in the handoff region

Abstract

Handoff is an inherent drawback of mobile communication, especially in urban areas, due to the limited coverage of access points (APs) or base stations (BS). It is essential to minimize this delay to provide the user with seamless network coverage. Many people have applied efficient location management techniques in the literature of next generation wireless system (NGWS). However, seamless handoff management still remains an open matter of research. Here we propose to minimize the handoff failure probability by effectively placing a wireless local area network (WLAN) AP in the handoff region between two neighboring cells. The WLAN coverage, on one hand, provides an additional coverage in the low signal strength region, and on the other hand, relieves the congestion in the cellular network. Moreover, we perform the channel scanning within the WLAN coverage area, thus minimizing the handoff failure due to scanning delay. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.