A Priority-Based Handover Scheme for IEEE 802.16 Networks

Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) grows quickly due to a requirement of life. Among WMANs, IEEE 802.16 is the most popular standard. IEEE 802.16 supports mobility and Quality of Service (QoS). IEEE 802.16 regulates a handover scheme between a Mobile Station (MS) and a Base Station (BS). However, IEEE 802.16 does not have a priority rule in its handover scheme. Accordingly, a low-priority MS may make a successful handover earlier than a high-priority MS, which delays and further breaks real-time data communication. In this paper, we propose a Priority-based Handover Scheme (PHS) for IEEE 802.16 networks. PHS gives a high-priority MS more handover opportunities to increase the handover speed, so real-time data communication of the high-priority MS can avoid the delay due to a handover. We simulate PHS and compare it with the native IEEE 802.16 handover scheme in the performance of dealing with a high-priority MS. In simulation tests, we show that PHS indeed increases the probability of a successful handover and improves the handover speed.