Fast and Secure Handoffs in Wireless Local Area Network using Proactive Caching Method

概要

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IEEE 802.11 based wireless networks have seen rapid growth and deployment in the recent years. Critical to the 802.11 MAC operation, is the handoff function which occurs when a mobile node moves its association from one access point to another. In this report, we present an empirical study of this handoff process at the link layer, with a detailed breakup of the latency into various components. In particular, we show that a MAC layer function - probe is the primary contributor to the overall handoff latency. In our study, we observe that the latency is significant enough to affect the quality of service for many applications (or network connections). Further we find a large variation in the latency with from one handoff to another and also among APs and STAs used from different vendors. In particular, we study the contribution of the inter-access point communication to the overall latency, and suggest caching based-heuristics to significantly improve them. In this study, we account for this variation and also draw the guidelines for future handoff schemes.
2003-07-08