A Cross-Layering IPv6 Fast Handover Scheme for Real-Time Applications in IEEE 802.16e Network

The IEEE 802.16 standard was designed to provide rapid deployment, high bandwidth, and low-cost fixed broadband wireless access (BWA). As an enhancement, IEEE 802.16e standard was developed for further supporting mobility. As media streaming services are extending to mobile stations, it is crucial to minimize the handover delay and service disruption time so as to maintain the sustained connection of IP sessions. In this work, we propose a cross-layering IPv6 fast handover scheme which features integrated layer 2/layer 3 messages and fast network re-entry methods. Compared with the fast mobile IPv6 over 802.16e network scheme, our proposed scheme can reduce the service disruption time by about 93.6% for downlink and 89.7% for uplink so that the quality of service (QoS) for real-time applications can be improved significantly.