Efficient Mobility Management for Vertical Handoff between WWAN and WLAN

As we are moving toward the next generation all-IP wireless networks, we are facing the integration of heterogeneous networks, such as WWAN and WLAN, where vertical handoff is required. In vertical handoff between WWAN and WLAN, mobile hosts should be able to move freely across different networks while satisfying QoS requirements for a variety of applications. In order to achieve seamless handoff and to maintain continuity of connection, in this article, we propose a novel mobility management system which integrates a connection manager (CM) to detect the network conditions change timely and accurately and a virtual connectivity manager (VC) which uses an end-to-end principle to maintain connection’s connectivity without additional network infrastructure support. Prototype system is built to testify the effectiveness of the proposed system. Experiments show that seamless roaming between WLAN and WWAN can be achieved and much better performance can be obtained compared to the traditional scheme. ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AP Access Point