J4 ›› 2012, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3): 34-42.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-2400.2012.03.006

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Scheme for cross-layer seamless handover between HeNB and WLAN in the roaming scenario

LAI Chengzhe;LI Hui;ZHANG Yueyu;CAO Jin   

  1. (School of Telecommunication Engineering, Xidian Univ., Xi'an  710071, China)
  • Received:2011-03-30 Online:2012-06-20 Published:2012-07-03
  • Contact: LAI Chengzhe E-mail:lcz.xidian@gmail.com

Abstract:

Home eNodeB (HeNB) is a small, low-power cellular base station, mainly used for indoor wireless access. During the period of coexistence of WLAN and HeNB, inevitable handover will occur between them in a certain region. To integrate these two technologies better, we propose a scheme for cross-layer seamless handover between HeNB and WLAN in the roaming scenario. The proposed scheme uses the basic idea of pre-registration and performs the pre-authentication process before layer 2 handover to reduce handover delay. In addition, it uses packet buffering and forwarding functions in order to reduce packet loss during the handover period. Detailed signaling procedures are presented. Finally, a detailed comparison is made in the signaling cost, the handover latency and the packet loss. The results of analysis illustrate that the proposed scheme achieves better performance compared to several other schemes.

Key words: home eNodeB(HeNB), WLAN, handover, cross-layer, seamless