A novel approach based on intersection and direction to optimize hard handover in mobile WiMAX

The IEEE 802.16e [Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(MWiMAX)] standard supports the mobility of Subscriber Station (SS), thus making them Mobile Station (MS). This incurs one of the most challenging issues in IEEE 802.16e which is handover (HO). HO occurs whenever MS migrates from one cell to another. Reducing HO delay is significant to improve the Quality of Service (QoS). To reduce the delay, we propose a method where the amount of intersection between the coverage area of Serving Base Station (SBS) and the coverage area of Neighboring Base Station (NBS) is considered as one set of NBS (Set A). The NBS which are in the direction in which MS is moving forms another set of NBS (Set B). The NBS which exist in Set A as well as Set B will then be scanned by MS for finding a suitable TBS. The simulation is implemented in MATLAB and graphs are provided to show the improvement in terms of lesser packet drop and reduced handover delay than the standard approach as well as the adaptive approach.