Using SINR as vertical handoff criteria in multimedia wireless networks

In the next generation multimedia wireless network environment that consists of heterogeneous access technologies, we need to offer the end user with multimedia QoS inside each access network as well as during vertical handoff between them. The vertical handoff algorithm have to be QoS aware, which cannot be achieved by using the traditional RSS as the vertical handoff criteria. In this paper, we propose a new vertical handoff algorithm using the receiving SINR from various access networks as the handoff criteria. By converting the different receiving SINR values, the handoff algorithm can have the knowledge of achievable bandwidths from both access networks, and make handoff decisions with multimedia QoS consideration. Analysis results confirms that the new SINK based vertical handoff algorithm is able to consistently offer the end user with maximum available bandwidth during vertical handoff comparing with the RSS based vertical handoff, whose performance differs under different network conditions.