Local and global handovers for mobility management in wireless ATM networks

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of virtual circuit (VC) management in wireless ATM (W-ATM) networks with mobile user terminals. In W-ATM networks, a VC terminating at a mobile user may require dynamic reestablishment during the short time span necessary for terminal handover due to its movement from one (macro)cell to another. The VC reestablishment procedure has to ensure in-sequence and loss-free delivery of the ATM cells containing user data. After a classification of the solutions proposed so far in the literature, a novel technique for the dynamic reestablishment of VCs in W-ATM networks is described, and its performance is evaluated through simulation. The proposed technique allows for a progressive upgrade of the fixed part of the ATM network and for the incremental introduction of user terminal mobility.