Applying Anticipated Vertical Handover (AVHO) in Next Generation Networks

This paper describes an anticipated mobility between the two access technologies WLAN and UMTS considered as complementary technologies for next generation networks integration. We propose to apply anticipated vertical handover (AVHO) in the integration of the third generation wireless communication (3G) from one side and WLAN 802.11 from the other side. The proposed AVHO offers mobile users, roaming in next generation networks, fast handover based on a pre-network selection such as the "make-before-break" approach used in fast MIP handovers. AVHO is adopted in the context of WLAN to UMTS handovers and vice versa to ensure service continuity with minimum HO latency and packet loss