Performance analysis of vertical handover techniques based on IEEE 802.21: Media independent handover standard

The introduction of new technologies such as the new families of IEEE, third or fourth generation with long term evolution support, and WiMAX provide support for high data rate in heterogeneous networks. Providing uninterrupted and continuous connectivity across these technologies is a challenging job for the researchers in the last decade. However, researchers have worked hard to develop a generic platform for the interoperability between different networks. The IEEE has made one of the important developments in this regard in the form of IEEE 802.21: media independent handover (MIH) standard. Recently, several research works have been carried out to enhance the functionality and to work of this standard. In this article, we surveyed the well-known and important schemes that have been proposed for migration of a session from Wi-Fi to cellular and WiMAX technologies based on MIH standard. We also investigate different parameters that directly affect the performance of a handover process.