Wireless ATM: handover issues

Basic aspects of cellular systems and the ATM transmission technology are introduced. Wireless ATM is presented as a combination of radio ATM and mobile ATM. Radio ATM is a wireless extension of an ATM connection while mobile ATM contains the necessary extensions to ATM to support mobility. Because the current ATM technology does not support mobility, handover becomes one of the most important research issues for wireless ATM. Wireless ATM handover requirements are thus analysed. A handover solution relying on two inter-related handover protocols is presented and evaluated. Future research is needed to compare this solution with options presented by earlier research and possibly combine their best features to yield even better solutions.