A Unifying Methodology for Handovers of Heterogeneous Connections in Wireless ATM Networks

摘要

The aim of Wireless ATM is to provide multi-media services to mobile users. While existing research on Wireless ATM are focussed on handovers of unicast connections, han- dovers of multicast connections have not been investigated. While conventional multicast join and leave operations occur over the same path, this is not the case during mobile host migrations in a Wireless ATM network. In this paper, we reveal how handovers of multicast connections can be achieved in a manner irrespective of whether these multicast trees are source-, server- or core-based. More importantly, we demonstrate how the enhanced hybrid handover protocol incorporating crossover switch discovery can be used to support han- dovers of heterogeneous (i.e., unicast and multicast) connections in a uniform and unified manner, for Wireless ATM LANs employing either the centralised or distributed connection management scheme.