A packet handoff management using partial buffer sharing scheme in wireless packet communications

Third generation wireless networks carry traffic from heterogeneous sources such as voice, data, video or multimedia with a specified quality of service. Efficient traffic management schemes should be developed to provide seamless access to the wireless network. In this paper, we propose a novel cell switching (e.g., packet handoff) scheme to support QoS guarantee for downlink. We define the new packets and handoff packets for each type of traffic and devise a new prioritization scheme at the buffer of the base station. We present the procedure to find the optimal thresholds satisfying the QoS requirements. Using the ON-OFF approximation method for the aggregate traffic, we compute the packet loss probability. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated by simulations and numerical analysis in term of packet loss probability.