Seamless Handoff Between

Heterogeneous Wireless
Networks
Haipeng Jin and Kameswari Chebrolu, UCSD
Aditya Pande and Xiaohua Chen, Stanford University
Javad Razavilar, Magis Networks Inc., San Diego
Barani Subbiah, 3Com Corp., Santa Clara

Introduction
Future

Wireless systems will be characterized by

their heterogeneity.
Multiple access technologies provide access to internet

content.

Indoor

Environment 802.11, Bluetooth, HomeRF,

IrDA etc.
Outdoor Environment GPRS, CDMA2000,
Satellite etc.
Systems differ in terms of coverage, bandwidth,
delay, cost etc.

Universal Wireless
Communication System
Anytime, Anywhere

Coverage
Three Layers of Coverage coverage decreases from top to
bottom.
Topmost Layer Satellite Systems
Global Coverage

Middle

Layer Cellular Networks

Metropolitan Areas

Bottom

Layer Local Area Networks

Hot Spot Coverage

A common

other.

IP based network will connect them to each

Requirements
Multimode

terminals
Seamless inter-system (Vertical) handoff
Service negotiation across different systems

Seamless

intra-system (Horizontal) handoff

Our Focus
Vertical

Handoff

Identify issues related to handoff between

WLAN and WWAN

Requirements for handoff: small delay, low

packet loss

Implement a testbed

Network

Layer : Mobile IP with extensions

Link Layer: Handoff Algorithm

Mobile IP
IETF

standard , handles mobility across IP subnets at the

network layer.
Mobile Terminal (MT) communicates with other nodes
using its home address.
MT acquires care-of address and registers with Home
Agent (HA).
HA intercepts packets destined for the MT and tunnels
them.
Route optimization - avoids triangle routing
CH learns the MTs current care-of address and tunnels packets

directly.

Mobile IP
CH
Packets destined for mobile

HA

Packets in reverse direction

Encapsulated packets

FA

MT

Architecture
Seamless

handoff between WLAN (IEEE 802.11) and

WWAN (CDMA PCS).
Mobile IP based
Extensions
Before handoff, MT notifies old Foreign Agent (FA) to stop

transmitting and buffer packets.

Connection established to new FA
New FA contacts old FA which passes the buffered packets.
MT communicates with Correspondent Host (CH) through
the new FA.

Handoff Algorithm

Details
Based

on measurement of WLAN signal

strength, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)
Connected to WLAN
SNR above CThresh, MT stays connected to

WLAN
SNR falls below CThresh, MT scans for
WWAN services and makes initial connections
SNR falls below DThresh, MT will switch from
WLAN to WWAN

Cont
Connected to WWAN

Searches for WLAN signal periodically

SNR above CThresh, MT switches from WWAN to
WLAN

Two thresholds defined to avoid Ping-Pong

effect
An exponential moving average of the SNR is
used.
Only SNR of the WLAN is monitored as MT
prefers WLAN because of the high data rate

Testbed

Testbed
Testbed

built at 3Com Corp

A laptop equipped with 802.11 and CDMA PCS
network interfaces served as MT.
Protocol Mobile IP with extensions
Home Agent was not implemented.
Handoff related processes were implemented
using C under linux platform.
A text based application was used in the
demonstration.

Results
Handoff delay-time

elapsed between the last

packet received on the old connection to the
first packet received on the new connection.
Handoff delay was about 600ms when
switching from WWAN to WLAN
Handoff delay was about 1040ms when
switching from WLAN to WWAN.

SNR measurement on WLAN

Switching from WLAN to

WWAN

Delay on WLAN

Delay while handoff

Conclusions
A handoff algorithm

to provide seamless
roaming between WLAN and WWAN was
proposed.
Field test results show
No unnecessary handoffs
Small packet loss and delay