Performance evaluation of handover mechanisms in wireless networks

It is widely recognized that mobility is one of the main features of wireless networks. In order to be able to remain reachable within a given geographic area (cell), a mobile terminal has to keep within the reach of a base station. As the mobile terminal moves from a cell to cell, the station has to connect to the base station covering the new cell. A handover mechanism defines the steps involved in the transfer of all the information and resource allocation enabling a mobile terminal to remain connected to the wireless network infrastructure. A large number of handover mechanisms have been reported in the literature. In this article, we carry out a comprehensive performance study of the handover mechanisms as proposed in the literature. A detailed simulation model has been developed allowing us to set up parameters such as the speed and motion path of the mobile terminal. The performance metrics of interest are: the overall response time of the handover mechanism, the length of the disruption time caused by the handover mechanism, the number of lost packets caused by the handover mechanism. Under the scenario under consideration, the handover using multicasting mechanism exhibits the best results.