Enhanced Handover Architecture in IEEE 802.21-enabled Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Vertical handover management is one of key challenges in heterogeneous network environment. In order to address some of these challenges, an IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover framework is standardized. The main objective of this standard is to provide a general interface for the handover by abstracting the link layer intelligence to higher layers. However, there still exist a number of limitations in MIH architecture. In this paper a new architecture of improved media independent handover is presented to perform vertical handover between wireless heterogeneous networks. An example of interworking architecture between WLAN and LTE Advanced Network is discussed using the proposed scheme.