A Comparative Study of Different Types of Handoff Strategies in Cellular Systems

Abstract: The Mobility in wireless cellular communication systems is its backbone so as to enhance the quality of service and maintain the continuous service. Handoff is an important task in maintaining the continuity of call in cellular systems and its failure can result in ongoing call termination. So handoffs are necessary for providing an enhanced QoS (Quality of Service) to users and provide a ubiquitous coverage. In order to successfully implement the handoff process, the system designers make a proper optimum signal level at which point handoff will initiate. During the handoff process some parameters like relative signal strength, relative signal strength with threshold, relative signal strength with hysteresis and relative signal strength with hysteresis and threshold are to be considered carefully. So this paper shows the brief description about the different handoff techniques in cellular systems moreover it compares all the handoff strategies on the basis of execution time, S/I ratio, RSS (Relative Signal Strength), call handling difficulty, handoff made and generation methods. Handoff strategies are very used in wireless communication where it can be know that which handoff strategy is not using in very efficient manner and it can also find the brief comparison between all handoff strategies which are used in mobile communication.

Keywords: Handoff, Queuing, QoS, Guard channels.