Seamless handover in terrestrial radio access networks: a case study

Next-generation networks will overlay heterogeneous networking technologies. In order to enable seamless communications in such an environment, providing support for efficient handover between the various access technologies will play a crucial role. The present article provides a quantitative analysis of it Mobile IPv4-based WLAN-GPRS handover prototype, identifies a number of side effects related to the link layer and routing mechanisms, and presents the impact of handover on UDP and TCP data traffic as well as on Mobile IP signaling itself.