A novel mechanism to reduce handoff delay in next generation wireless networks

With the rapid increase mobile computing devices and wireless networking technology, the demand for ‘anywhere and anytime’ access to high-speed data for real and non-real time multimedia services increases. In Next Generation Wireless Networks, seamless handover between different wireless access networks plays a vital role. In this paper, we propose a new handover mechanism based on the information from the physical Layer, Data Link Layer, Network Layer and Application Layers. The collected information is used in execution of three stages in the Handover process of NGWS. The neighboring BSs are determined using CARD protocol. The TOPSIS method is used to select the best available network based on minimum handoff signaling delay and QoS parameters of the wireless applications specified by 3GPP. The handoff initiation time is then calculated and handoff is executed. Simulation results shows that the proposed mechanism gives reduced handoff delay when compared to the mechanism with layer (2+3) information.