PoA Selection in 802.11 Networks Using Media Independent Information Server (MIIS)

Mobility is an integral part of modern day wireless and mobile communication networks. Therefore handovers of Mobile Nodes (MN´s) from one Point of Attachment (PoA) to another are inevitable. This makes the handover efficiency an important metric for analyzing network performance and user satisfaction level. From an efficient handover perspective, not only the handover delay needs to be acceptably short, but also an intelligent decision is required to select the best available Access Point (AP), so that the currently running applications of the MN are not adversely affected in terms of their Quality of Service (QoS). The traditional way of choosing the best available AP with respect to Received Signal Strength (RSS) may not always perform efficiently. Because it is not necessary that the best AP with respect to RSS is also the best with respect to QoS parameters as well, such as available bandwidth. In this article we present a novel PoA selection algorithm for 802.11 networks that takes into account the available bandwidth, cost of the connection and security level of the candidate AP, in addition to the distance between the MN and the surrounding AP´s. We also propose ranking of AP´s with respect to security in the form of a table. We devise a framework for implementing such an algorithm with the help of the Media Independent Information Server (MIIS), of the Media Independent Handover (MIH). Our simulation results shows that our scheme have superior performance when compared to a scheme which is purely based on the distance between the MN and the AP, for nonuniform traffic.