2013 IEEE 3rd International Conference on System Engineering and Technology, 19 - 20 Aug.
2013, Shah Alam, Malaysia
Performance of SINR Based Handover
Among Heterogeneuous Networks in MIH
Environments
Ammar A. Bathich, Mohd Dani Baba, Ruhani Ab Rahman, Muhammad Ibrahim
Centre for Computer Engineering Studies,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi MARA,
40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia
ammarbat2003@g mail.co m, mdani074@salam.uit m.edu.my
Abstract— The great increase in user demand to roam among
various wired and wireless communications networks without
affecting the signal quality has attracted many researchers to
investigate about the best handover decision criteria that promote
seamless handover. IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover
(MIH) standard can be considered to be the best environment for
handling both horizontal and vertical handover. In this work, we
propose a new decision criteria based on MIH signalling among
WLAN and WiMAX networks which depend on the received
S ignal to Interference and Noise Ratio (S INR) instead of the
traditional Received S ignal S trength (RS S ) criteria. In order to
provide multimedia QoS inside the integrated network
environment, the proposed VHD provides the knowledge of the
achievable bandwidth from both networks by using the re ceived
S INR. S imulation-based outputs along with analytical results
have confirmed that our proposal would offer the end user with
better performance during the handover stage.
Keywords-component; SINR; IEEE 802.21; vertical handover;
QoS; MIH; heterogeneous network
I. INT RODUCT ION
In today’s world, the increasing demand for
communication services anywhere and anytime is leading to a
rapidly growing tendency towards the convergence of
heterogenous wireless access technologies. A number of access
networks can be integrated to create a seamless system, wh ich
is known as the Fourth Generation (4G) wireless system [1, 2].
By achieving the 4G system, a Mobile Terminal (MT) can
roam among various wireless networks in a high data rate,
besides using several services together due to wide bandwidth
offered [3-8].
Amongst different available wireless access networks,
handsets or MTs that have the ability to decide and choose the
most preferred network, as stated in the 4G literature.
IEEE802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (W LAN) [9],
IEEE802.16 World wide Interoperability for M icrowave Access
(WiMAX) [10], Bluetooth [11], satellite systems [12] and
cellular telephony networks are the most common access
systems in 4G systems. Switching smoothly among
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heterogeneous access networks without any interruptions is
called the Vertical Handover VH [13].
In a significant step towards fulfilling this goal, the IEEE
802.21 standard provides a framework to support systems for
enabling seamless vertical handovers [14]. While IEEE 802.21
only creates the overall framework, the implementation of the
actual algorithms has been left to the system designers.
Therefore, to guarantee the success of this framework, it is
crucial to develop effective vertical handover decision (VHD)
algorithms.
Many vertical handover decision algorithms have been
proposed in literature, most of them have designed their VHD
algorithms depending on the signal strength recieved by the
mobile terminal, in which handover decisions are made by
comparing the received signal strength with the preset
threshold values. These algorithms use the signal strength as a
basic handover decision indicator called Received Signal
Strength (RSS) algorith ms. Ho wever, the data rate achieved by
a mobile terminal is related to its Signal to Interference and
Noise Ratio (SINR), which is a function of the interference in
the network, as well as the distance between Base Station (BS)
or Access Point (AP) to the mobile terminal. RSS-based VHD
occurs when the mobile terminal receiving power reaches a
threshold value regardless of the multimedia QoS needed; this
means that the RSS-based VHD does not support the user QoS.
On the other hand, SINR-based VHD supports multimedia QoS
by depending on the achievable data rate which leads to a
seamless vertical handover.
II. MEDIA INDEPENDENT HANDOVER MIH
MIH defines a logical entity, MIHF, located on layer 2.5
between link layer and network layer of the OSI model. It
provides a framework that allows interaction between higher
layers and lower layers. The MIHF supports three types of
services: Media Independent Event Services (MIES), Media
Independent Command Service (MICS), and Media
Independent Information Service (MIIS). The MIES aims to
provide and to predict link changes such as LINK UP, LINK
DOWN, LINK GOING DOWN, etc. These events are
propagated from lower layers to upper layers through the MIH
 2013 IEEE 3rd International Conference on System Engineering and Technology, 19 - 20 Aug. 2013, Shah Alam, Malaysia

layer. MIES is divided into two categories, link events and
MIH events. Lin k events are generated from the lower layer
and transmitted to MIH layer.
The MIH events are the events forwarded from MIH to
upper layers. MICS refers to the commands, such as initiate
handover and complete handover, sent from higher layers to
lower layers. It allo ws enabling handover mechanism. MICS
includes MIH co mmand and LINK co mmand. M IH
Co mmands originate fro m the upper layers down to the MIHF.
Link Co mmands are specific to the lower layers. MIIS provides
a framework by which MIHF can discover homogeneous and
heterogeneous network informat ion existing within a
geographical area to facilitate seamless handover when
roaming across these networks. The MIIS provides a
bidirectional way for the two layers to share information such
as current QoS, performance information and availability of
service. Figure 1 illustrates the MIH architecture.
• W represents the bandwidth of the carrier
• γ is the received SINR at a MT
• Г is the gap in decibel between channel capacity and
uncoded QAM, minus the gain caused by coding.
Let RBS be the maximu m data rate from W iMAX base
station, RAP be the maximu m data rate fro m WLAN access
point. Shannon formula becomes:
(2)
(3)
Where, γBS and γAP represent the receiving SINR fro m
WiMAX and WLAN respectively. By letting RBS = RAP , we can
find the relationship between required γBS and γAP in case of MT
receiving the same data rate from WiMAX and WLAN:

[( ) ] (4)

The SINR-based VHD algorithm becomes applicable by

Figure 1. MIH architecture
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has
modified the network simulator NS -2 version 2.29 [15] to
implement the Media Independent Handover (MIH). The
modified NS-2.29 version [16] consisted of MIH Function
(MIHF) imp lementation based on the IEEE 802.21
specifications. It helps to evaluate the performance of different
handover decision engines.
having the relationship between the receiving SINR and the
maximu m data rate from both WiMAX and WLAN. γBS which
represent the SINR received fro m W iMAX has been converted
to an equivalent γAP required to achieve the same data rate in
WLAN. The flo wchart in Figure 2 shows the procedure of
equivalent SINR-based model.
With the combined effects of both SINR being considered,
handover is initiated while the user is getting equivalen t SINR
fro m another access network. It means that given the receiver
end SINR measurements of both WLAN and WiMAX channel,
the handover mechanism now has the knowledge of the
estimated maximu m possible receiving data rates a user can get
fro m either W LAN or WiMAX at the same time within the
handover zone, where both WLAN and WiMAX signal are
available [19].

III. SINR BASED VERT ICAL HANDOVER ST RAT EGY

Signal to Interference and No ise Rat io SINR is considered as

the main criteria in our proposed vertical handover algorith m
between WiMAX and WiFi using the standard IEEE 802.21
(MIH). Kemeng et al [17] have used the same method in the
integration between WCDMA and WiFi using Matlab without
getting benefit fro m MIH as a seamless handover environment
in the heterogeneous networks [18]. Shannon capacity formula
determines the maximu m achievable data rate for a given
SINR and carrier bandwidth:

(1)

where:
• R is the maximu m achievable data rate
Figure 2. Equivalent SINR based model

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 2013 IEEE 3rd International Conference on System Engineering and Technology, 19 - 20 Aug. 2013, Shah Alam, Malaysia
Figure 3. Simulation scenario
Figure 3 shows the network topology, which consists of one
WiMAX cell, t wo WiFi cells and one mobile terminal. The
MT starts moving (t = 0 s) in WiMAX coverage toward WiFi
cells. At (t=22 s) the equivalent SINR received by WiMAX
cell ( [( ) ] is equal to the actual SINR
received by WiFi (2) , which consider Wi-Fi network is
better than WiMAX, the MN makes the HO to the W i-Fi
network at (t = 22 s). MT stays in WiFi (2) for around 200 s
until it senses that it is losing coverage. At (t=222 s) Link
Go ing Down event is triggered by MT. For simu lation issues,
we have fixed all the parameters in equation 4 as fo llo ws: The
carrier bandwidth for W LAN is 1MHz and 5M Hz for
WiMAX. Г AP equals to 3dB for WLAN, and Г BS equals to
16dB for WiMAX [17].
IV. PERFORMANCE OF SINR BASED HANDOVER
Nine stages need to be achieved through different software
and applications to analyze the performance o f the SINR
based vertical handover between WIMAX and WiFi networks
in MIH environments, as described in figure 4.
The network topology consists of one WiMAX base station,
two WiFi access points and one mobile station as described in
figure 3. The handover performance of the network system
model is evaluated with two types of traffic flo w: FTP & Vo IP
and their parameters are shown in table 1.
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Figure 4. Simulation stages
The simu lation period is set to 36 s, and the traffic flow begins
fro m t = 0 s. The evaluation metrics in our work are:
throughput, end-to-end delay and packet loss ratio.
T able 1. T raffic parameters
Traffic Packet size Data rate
FTP 1500 Byte 120 kbps
VoIP 160 Byte 64 kbps
A. Throughput
Throughput or network throughput is defined as the rate of
successful packets transmitted through a communication
network, measured in bit per second bps. In our evaluation we
consider 10 kbps and 4kbps as the throughput thresholds (QoS
requirements) for FTP and VoIP respectively [20].
Fro m figure 5 we notice that the throughput of FTP for both
RSS and SINR scenarios begin to decrease after 5 second to
reach their min imu m values after 22 s, wh ich could be
considered as the point of the occurrence of vertical handover
between WiMAX and WLAN networks. Received Signal
Strength RSS g ives throughout of 21 kbps at the handover
mo ment while it is 25 kbps in our SINR. This could be
considered as the first indicat ion that our algorith m (SINR
based VHD) provides better performance compared with the
RSS method.
On the other hand, we notice fro m the same figure that the
performance of both algorithms (RSS and SINR) is almost the
same. To give more accurate comparison in the matter, we
converted each curve to its equivalent linear function, wh ich
could be integrated to find the area under the curve during the
simu lation period for both RSS and SINR curves, as shown in
equation 5 and 6.
∫ =∫ =3047 kb (5)
∫ =∫ 2990 kb (6)
 2013 IEEE 3rd International Conference on System Engineering and Technology, 19 - 20 Aug. 2013, Shah Alam, Malaysia

We notice that the overall throughput in SINR algorith m algorith m. Equivalent linear functions for SINR and RSS have
(3047 kb) is better than in RSS (2990 kb). been integrated also as in equation 9 and 10, wh ich give
another indication that using equivalent SINR in the VH
decision improves the performance of the network.

∫ = ∫ = 1078.09 (9)

∫ =∫ 1142.5 (10)

Vo ice over Internet Protocol VoIP with data rate of 64 kbps

(figure 8) has been used as a traffic flow to evaluate the end-
to-end delay both in Received Signal Strength RSS and Signal
to Interference and Noise Ratio algorith ms SINR. At the 22th
second – the point of the handover – the SINR algorith m
shows the highest delay of 79 ms while delay in RSS is 95 ms.
Besides, SINR equivalent linear function shows lower overall
delay than RSS as shown in equation 11 and 12.
Figure 5. T hroughput of 120 kpbs FT P flow
∫ = 1148.19 (11)
The simu lation of Vo IP flow as shown in figure 6 ind icates
that 7 kbps is the lowest throughput for SINR algorith m at the ∫ = 1180.42 (12)
handover point while it is 5 kbps for the traditional RSS
algorith m, which gives another reason that our SINR based
VHD can provide better performance than RSS.
Integrations of equivalent linear functions for both curves
show that SINR is better than RSS, as shown in equation 7 and
8.

Figure 7. End-to-end delay of 120 kpbs FT P flow

Figure 6. T hroughput of 64 kpbs VoIP flow

∫ = ∫ = 1208.844 kb (7)

∫ =∫ 1066.7736 kb (8)

B. End-to-end delay

End-to-end delay refers to the time taken for a packet to be

transmitted across a network fro m source to destination. We
consider that 100 ms is the end-to-end delay threshold (QoS
requirements) for both FTP and VoIP flow [20].
Figure 7 shows end-to-end delay for FTP traffic where the Figure 8. End-to-end delay of 64 kpbs VoIP flow
packets in SINR algorith m reach the maximu m delay (69 ms)
at the vertical handover mo ment while 76 ms for RSS

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 2013 IEEE 3rd International Conference on System Engineering and Technology, 19 - 20 Aug. 2013, Shah Alam, Malaysia

C. Packet loss

Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data travelling

across a network fail to reach their destination. We have
calculated the rate of the packet loss during the simulat ion
time using both FTP and VoIP traffics. We consider that the
packet loss rate threshold for FTP flow is 2% and 1% for Vo IP
[20].
During the handover period between the t wo networks we
notice that around 1.37 % o f FTP packets have been lost in
RSS mechanis m, wh ile it’s around 1.2 % for SINR The rate
has been decreased during VoIP traffic to reach 0.85 % and
0.90 % in SINR and RSS respectively (figure 9,10).
Integration of the linear functions for both curves in FTP and
Vo IP traffics are shown below (equations 13-16) respectively,
which is a clear indication that by considering the interference
between the networks lead to a better decision during the
handover. Figure 9. Packet loss rate of 120 kpbs FT P flow

∫ =∫ =19.0296 (13)

∫ ∫ (14)

∫ =∫ = 14.9148 (15)

∫ =∫ 15.516 (16)

V. CONCLUSION AND FUT URE WORK

Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio SINR based vertical

handover has been used as handover criteria fo r WiFi and
WiMAX networks, with t wo traffic flo ws: FTP and VoIP.
Network throughput during the handover period shows SINR
algorith m provides better performance than the traditional
RSS technique. Using the received SINR g ives the vertical
handover mechanis m the ability to make handover decisions
with mult imed ia QoS consideration, such as guarantee the
minimum user required data rate during vertical handover.
End-to-end delay and packet loss rate show that by taking into
consideration the interference between neighbouring networks
in the handover phase lead to better performance than
depending on received signal strength only.
For future work can consider to establish mu lti-decision
vertical handover system among various networks; such
system shall consider security, monetary cost, power
consumption and user preferences in the decision criteria.
Figure 10. Packet loss rate of 64 kpbs VoIP flow
VI. ACKNOWLEDGM ENT
The authors would like to thanks Research Management
Institute, UiTM for the support by providing the excellence
grant 600-RMI/ST/DANA 5/3/Dst.
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