Abstract:

The emergence of packet loss is inevitable because of the BSS handoff in IEEE 802.11 networks, which generates great impact on the network performance and limits the development of WLANs in the mobile environment. In order to reduce packet loss, this paper presents a data link layer smooth handoff mechanism triggered by wireless events. And we realize the scheme on the embedded Linux wireless access point in the user space. The extensive experimental results show that, the method can largely reduce the packet loss ratio and improve the network performance within the permissible delay, without changing the current IEEE 802.11 protocol. The mechanism is independent of the driver, features good portability, so that it can be incrementally added on the existing APs without changing STA, and reduces the upgrade cost.

Key words: IEEE 802.11;smooth handoff;data link layer;LWAP