Architecture and mobility management protocols for next-generation wireless systems (NGWS)

Next-generation wireless systems are envisioned to have all Internet Protocol (IP) based infrastructure with the support of heterogeneous access technologies. One of the research challenges for next generation all-IP-based wireless systems is the design of intelligent mobility management techniques that take advantage of IP-based technologies to achieve global roaming among various access technologies. In this paper a new wireless network architecture for mobility management is proposed to integrate the cellular system and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) of various providers that may not necessarily have direct service level agreement (SLA) among them. This algorithm considers traffic load as an important factor for initiating handoff. New mobility management protocols are also developed to support vertical handoff between different wireless systems by using the concept of the dynamic boundary area. The dynamic boundary area is determined based on the speed of the user and handoff signaling delay information. A simulation model is developed to study the performance of the proposed algorithm. Performance analysis and simulation results show that this algorithm significantly increases the probability of unnecessary handoff and the use of adaptive value of received signal strength avoids too early or too late initiation of the handoff process.