Hierarchical Neighbor Discovery Scheme for Handover Optimization

In the future mobile Internet, one of the most challenging aspects is to discover the available neighbor access networks and it's characteristics as the user moves. Using the IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) standard, this letter proposes a new neighbor network discovery mechanism, considering a hierarchical view of the network information. Through a NS-2 based simulation, it is shown that the proposed model can significantly improve the mobility user experience.