Location-aided scanning mechanism using GPS during handoff process in mobile WiMAX

In order to support mobility which guarantees an uninterrupted service, handoff is one of the crucial criteria to be concerned about, especially on latency during handoff, that might interrupt the on-going services. This is due to the redundant and inappropriate scanning producing delay as well as packet loss during the handover process. An enhancement of scanning technique with location-aided path database is introduced to reduce delay during scanning. The proposed mechanism reduces scanning time by reducing the number of Base Station (BS) to be scan using GPS (Global Positioning System) as location-aid. The scheme is expected to short-list the potential Base Station according to the location of the Mobile Station (MS) and the path chosen. Simulation result shows that by using proposed method, average scanning time is shorter than the average scanning time in the conventional method.