Hand-off and synchronization protocols for supporting multimedia communications in an ATM based wireless network

New multimedia service provision, that requires high transfer speeds, and end-to-end network guaranteed delays, is an under-research field in mobile communications. These services are currently supported by ATM networks, that are, in fact the basis of the fixed network in whole mobile communication systems. However, new generations of digital wireless communication systems, based on TDMA, have bandwidth and signalling limitations in supporting these services. An important problem in this scenario is the synchronisation of multimedia flows when a hand-off is performed, and bandwidth management. We propose, for a typical ATM fixed network/TDMA wireless system architecture, some improvements in the synchronisation and bandwidth management process of multimedia flows after a hand-off procedure.