A Fast MAC-Layer Handover for an IEEE 802.16e-Based WMAN

We propose a modification of the IEEE 802.16e hard handover (HHO) procedure, which significantly reduces the handover latency constraint of the original RHO procedure in IEEE 802.16e networks. It allows a better handling of the delay-sensitive traffic by avoiding unnecessary time-consuming scanning and synchronization activity as well as simplifies the network re-entry procedure. With the help of the backhaul network, it reduces the number of control messages in the original handover policy, making the handover latency acceptable also for real-time streaming traffic. Preliminary performance evaluation studies show that the modified handover procedure is able to reduce the total handover latency by about 50%.