A Software Defined Wireless Networking Approach for Managing Handoff in IEEE 802.11 Networks

Abstract EN

In Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) with more than one access point (AP), the handoff process plays a crucial role to guarantee the user service continuity.

Usually initiated by the client’s equipment, it occurs smoothly on the order of seconds.

However, despite being functional and well-established, this process can be inadequate in scenarios where users are executing multimedia applications, such as real-time video streaming or VoIP.

For these applications, those few seconds may cause loss of packets, resulting in loss of essential information.

Because of that, this study proposes a Software Defined Wireless Networking (SDWN) approach, in which a controller decides when to initiate the handoff process and chooses the AP the client’s device must connect.

This approach was implemented in a testbed scenario and the results have shown its efficiency by decreasing the handoff delay and providing more stability to the process.