Efficient Handovers for Machine-to-Machine Communications between IEEE 802.11 and 3GPP Evolved Packed Core Networks

Advances in wireless communication technologies are driving the evolution toward ever faster networks in terms of throughput and latency. At the same time, machine-to machine (M2M) communications is expected to have considerable potential with millions of devices connected within the following years. M2M communications is one of the key capabilities for implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT). Due to this potential, several standard organizations are now focusing on developing enhancements into their standards to support M2M communications. As there is no consensus for the architecture of a general scenario for M2M communications, the heterogeneous mobile ad hoc network (HetMANET) can generally be considered suitable for the M2M challenges. Hence, this calls for the IP mobility management, allowing a device to connect to services and access technologies that are best suited for that need. To examine how-to improve the HetMANET concept using existing standards such as IEEE 802.11 and 3GPP Evolved Packed Core (EPC) this paper introduces a straightforward and energy efficient algorithm for vertical handovers. A reference implementation of the handover concept in Android based vehicular-to-infrastructure is introduced. This reference implementation examines energy and performance efficiency in heterogeneous network environment. In addition, real-life use cases with real life services on top of WLAN and cellular network environments are presented to back up the selected approach.