Anticipated handover over IEEE 802.11 networks

The recent success of IEEE 802.11 networks and the increasing demand for real time services suggest a new usage of wireless devices. In particular, mobility management between access points and IPv6 networks must be fast enough to avoid loss of packets. In this paper, we propose a new mechanism to anticipate handovers. The movement anticipation consists of new potential access points discovery before the handover has even started. It also allows a station to set up in advance a new IPv6 configuration for the next location. We show by simulation that the anticipation mechanism strongly enhances both link and network layers handovers and significantly reduces the loss of packets.