On handoffs in packetized wireless systems

In this paper, we present a handoff scheme for a packetized wireless systems that does not require any real-time processing to determine the association of a mobile with a base station. In particular, in our scheme, a single ALOHA-type universal signaling channel that is used to establish, update, and terminate associations between mobiles and base stations. The signaling channel is based on a semi-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