Reducing the Handoff Latency in 802.11 IEEE WLAN by Reducing the Channel Scanning Time

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 based wireless local area network (WLAN) has been in great growth and multimedia applications such as VoIP which requires high bandwidth, low latency and low packet loss are in great use. These applications require a delay of less than 150 msecs and packet loss less than 3%. However, the latency in traditional IEEE 802.11 based WLAN is usually more than 200 MS and the packet loss exceeds 10%. Thus, it is required to solve the handoff problem in the WLAN to satisfy people’ demand for multimedia applications. In this paper, we have a brief introduction to the handoff process. We have analyzed the existing mechanisms for handoff and compare these ways for their advantages and disadvantages. We propose some new ways to modify the existing handoff schemes. Thus, fast handoff scheme will make the time sensitive multimedia applications becoming more widespread.