WLAN Cell Handoff Latency Abatement Using an FPGA Fuzzy Logic Algorithm Implementation

• Main Authors: Roberto Sepúlveda, Oscar Montiel-Ross, Jorge Quiñones-Rivera, Ernesto E. Quiroz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
• Series: Advances in Fuzzy Systems
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/219602

Following the path toward 4 G set by its wireless siblings LTE and WiMax, IEEE 802.11 technology, universally known as WiFi, is evolving to become a high data rate QoS-enabled mobile platform. The IEEE 802.11n standard yields data rates up to 450 Mbp s and the 802.11e standard ensures proficient QoS for real-time applications. Still in need of better performance, multicell environments that provide extended coverage allow the mobile station nomadic passage beyond a single cell by means of cell dissociation-association process known as handoff. This process poses a challenge for real-time applications like voice over IP (150 ms maximum delay) and video (200–400 ms) sessions, to give the user a seamless cell-crossing without data loss or session breakage. It presented an approach of a predictive fuzzy Logic controller to reduce the channel scanning process to a tenth of the standard time, and its efficient FPGA implementation to speed up the processing time. The algorithm of the fuzzy controller was implemented in C language. Experimental results are provided.