Hndoff ordering using link quality estimator for multimedia communications in wireless networks

Traditional handoff ordering methods adopt the received signal strength (RSS) as the basis of prioritization. However, the RSS is not the only one metric to represent the user perceived quality of service, since many other factors, like the packet length, interference, and the modulation/codec schemes, would also affect it. In this paper, we propose a handoff ordering method based on packet success rate (PSR) for multimedia communications in wireless networks. The priority of a handoff request is based on its current PSR, the PSR degradation rate, and the minimum PSR requirement of its service class. The major contribution of our method is that we improve the user perceived QoS during the handoff process. Simulation results indicate that our method can effectively improve the handoff call dropping probability with little or no increase of the new call blocking probability.