SCTP based Handover Mechanism for VoIP over IEEE 802.11b Wireless LAN with Heterogeneous Transmission Rates

In this paper a transport layer handover mechanism for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in 802.11b using the Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is proposed. The multi-homing feature of SCTP is used to allow connections to several 802.11b Access Points (AP's). Probing packets that model VoIP encoded data at various transmission rates are used to obtain quality metrics from each of the available networks. Handover decisions are made based on the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) calculated from the ITU-T E-Model for voice quality assessment using the obtained measurements. The handover mechanism is shown to operate in 802.11b networks with heterogeneous transmission rates using multiple VoIP codecs. The results show a high correlation between the MOS predicted by the proposed mechanism and the MOS experienced by a VoIP call present in the network. Results verify the accurate operation of the scheme using multiple VoIP codecs at various transmission rates. A simulation showing an SCTP endpoint handover between heterogeneous transmission rate AP's is presented.