On handoffs in packetized wireless systems

This paper presents a handoff scheme for a packetized wireless system that does not require any real-time processing to determine the association of a mobile with a base station. In particular, a single ALOHA-type universal signaling channel is used to establish, update, and terminate associations between mobiles and base stations, and is based on a quasi-periodic transmission of a mobile´s ID to nearby base stations. A simple algorithm is then employed to update the associations, which are fully transparent to the mobile. Moreover, even though the end-to-end communication is connection-oriented, because the specific database structure is maintained in the base stations, the handoff mechanism is immediate, with no noticeable effect on the communication in progress. Furthermore, the packet routing remains shortest-path, no matter how many cells the mobile may travel through. Several performance figures, such as the density of active mobiles in the scheme, are presented