Mobility Management in IEEE 802.16e-based Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks

Sayan Ray (PhD Student)

Dept. of Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Canterbury

Wed Mar 19 09:40:00 NZDT 2008 in Room 315, Erskine Building

Abstract

The IEEE 802.16 or WiMAX is considered as the networking technology for the Fourth Generation (4G) broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs). With the introduction of mobility management framework in the WiMAX family of standards (IEEE 802.16e), the technology is spearheading as a strong contender for existing and forthcoming networks, in terms of providing ubiquitous computing solutions for multimedia applications. Mobile WiMAX defines different types of handover techniques, such as the default hard handover (HHO) and optional soft handovers (SHO). However, in the MAC-layer, these handover techniques suffer from drawbacks related to latency and resource wastages, generated due to prolonged handover phases and redundant MAC management messages, which act as constraints for catering delay-sensitive applications. This presentation discusses the Mobile WiMAX MAC-layer HHO methodology and our recently proposed framework to overcome the drawbacks in the original technique.