A Survey on Media Independent Handover (MIH) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

One challenge of wireless networks integration is to provide ubiquitous wireless access abilities and seamless handover for mobile communication devices between different types of technologies (3GPP and non3GPP), such as Global System for Mobile Communication, Wireless Fidelity, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System and Long Term Evolution. This challenge is critical as mobile users are becoming increasingly demanding for services regardless of the technological complexities associated with them. To fulfil these requirements for seamless vertical handover (VHO) two main interworking frameworks have been proposed by IEEE Group and 3GPP for integration between the aforementioned technologies; namely, Media Independent Handover IEEE 802.21 and IP Multimedia Subsystem, where each of them requires mobility management protocol to complement its work, such as Mobile IP and Session Initiation Protocol, respectively. Various VHO approaches have been proposed in the literature based on these frameworks. In this paper, we survey the VHO approaches proposed in the literature and classify them into four categories based on these frameworks for which we present their objectives and performances issues.