Abubakar Muhammad Miyim, Hadiza Mohammed Kaigama, Abubakar Wakili , Binta Ali Shuwa and Kabira Umar

Keywords: Heterogeneous wireless networks; vertical handover Algorithms; throughput; Handover Delay

Abstract

The rapid escalation in demand for faster transmission speed, broader coverage has led to the invention of more standards to improve mobile communications. Heterogeneous wireless networks (Hetnet) were introduced to meet the data rate and traffic demands. Mobile terminals should be able to seamlessly handover to the best access link among all existing candidates without interruption. The most challenging issues in heterogeneous wireless network is handover management. Many different handover algorithms were developed to overcome the challenges, but the problem still persist Hence, this work aims to propose a Mobile Velocity-Distance (MVD) algorithm capable of reducing/minimizing number of HOs and to measure the performance of the MVD algorithm against other empirical methods: RSSI based, cost-based and bandwidth. VoIP and video streaming traffic were transmitted in order to analyze the quality of service during the vertical handover with each algorithm. Throughput, handover delays, number of handovers, and packet delivery ratio were the performance metrics used. It is observed that MVD algorithm performs better than RSSI based, bandwidth-based and cost-based. It is capable of providing good quality voice call and video streaming during vertical handover and performs better than other algorithms.