IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN association procedure for multimedia applications

We propose a new association scheme for IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs in a mobile environment. The proposed scheme is suitable for multimedia applications in which the interruption of service experienced by the mobile user while in transit between wireless LAN cells should be minimized. We analyze the proposed association scheme and compare it with the original scheme proposed in the IEEE 802.11 standard. We conclude that if the original scheme is implemented in networks that mainly support multimedia applications (e.g., voice and video), quality of service can not be provided in a mobile environment. The proposed scheme can help in providing a seamless QoS for mobile users running multimedia applications.