Performance evaluation of GPRS/802.11b mobile-node initiated handover based on signal strength criteria
Abstract
There has been a great concern by cellular providers about the impact Wireless Local Area Network
(WLAN) systems that are based on 802.11b wireless standard pose to mobile business [24]. While
cellular providers are still trying to offer high GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) data rates of more
than 57kbps, 802.11b, also known as Wi-Fi, is already achieving more than 100 times 2.5G network
data rates at 1 to 11Mbps. A user can enjoy high data rates using Wi-Fi in the comfort of a wireless
connection to the Internet, but looses connection if he roams out of the range of the Wi-Fi Access
Point (AP) covering the Mobile Node. In GPRS the user need not worry about the range shortcoming
of the network, but the lower data rates of the connection to the Internet as well as the more expensive
costs, which are shortcoming when compared to Wi-Fi. The apparent solution for fulltime coverage
and high data rates at low cost during data communication is to integrate the two networks. This
integration has proved to be a challenge for mobile operators in terms of offering mobility between
2.5G networks and 802.1 lb/a/g networks.
This thesis describes research followed to realize and evaluate performance of a handover mechanism
based on signal strength criteria between GPRS and 802.11b access networks. The purpose is to
integrate the two access networks with one Mobile Node (MN) and to evaluate the performance of a
Mobile-Node initiated handover based on signal strength. This paper also describes the developed
GPRS/802.11b testbed using Mobile IP standard (RFC 2002) to achieve handover between the hybrid
networks. Mobile IP is an open standard still being refined by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force) to allow all IP based communication devices to roam from one network to the other.
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