An optimal vertical handover for heterogeneous networks based on IEEE 802.21 MIH standards

Attractive advantage of multimode ability of mobile device to seamlessly switch its connection between various wireless access networks is an important research issue in 4G communication. An approach to optimize these handover procedures through a novel IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover standard provides technology skeptic mechanism to obtain cross layer control information of network environment. The design goal of this paper is to provide an efficient vertical handover decision algorithm based on IEEE 802.21 standards for best quality of service to wide range of applications. The proposed method is compared against the existing methods. Simulation result shows that the probability of handover failure and unnecessary handover for the proposed method are minimized by considering the velocities of mobile terminals. Handover to candidate network with respect to hysteresis and loss probabilities of new calls and handoff calls are analyzed.