Fast-handoff support in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

With the advance of wireless local area network (WLAN) technology, handoff support has become one of the most important issues in IEEE 802.11 WLANs. However, the current IEEE 802.11 specification does not provide the fast handoff required for real-time multimedia applications. To support fast handoff in IEEE 802.11 networks, a number of fast-handoff schemes have been proposed in the literature. In this article we review these fast-handoff schemes and analyze their advantages and disadvantages qualitatively. After that, important design considerations for mobility support in future IEEE 802.11 networks are suggested. Also, we introduce a fast-handoff framework which adaptively meets different application requirements via a cross-layer approach.