I.J. Intelligent Systems and Applications, 2018, 1, 46-57 Published Online January 2018 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijisa.2018.01.06 Copyright © 2018 MECS I.J. Intelligent Systems and Applications, 2018, 1, 46-57 A Novel Handoff Necessity Estimation Approach Based on Travelling Distance Jyoti Madaan Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad, 121003, India E-mail: jyotiverma.fet@mriu.edu.in Dr. Indu Kashyap Department of Computer Science, Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad, 121003, India E-mail: indu.fet@mriu.edu.in Received: 30 March 2017; Accepted: 08 June 2017; Published: 08 January 2018 Abstract—Mobility management is one of the most important challenges in Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWNs) as it enables users to move across geographic boundaries of wireless networks. Nowadays, mobile communications has heterogeneous wireless networks offering variable coverage and Quality of Service (QoS). The availability of alternatives generates a problem of occurrence of unnecessary handoff that results in wastage of network resources. To avoid this, an efficient algorithm needs to be developed to minimize the unnecessary handoffs. Conventionally, whenever a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) connectivity is available, the mobile node switch from the cellular network to wireless local area network to gain maximum use of high bandwidth and low cost of wireless local area network as much as possible. But to maintain call quality and minimum number of call failure, a considerable proportion of these handovers should be determined. Our algorithm makes the handoff to wireless local area network only when the Predicted Received Signal Strength (PRSS) falls below a threshold value and travelling distance inside the wireless local area networkis larger than a threshold distance. Through MATLAB simulation, we show that our algorithm minimizes the probability of unnecessary handoff, and probability of handoff failure. Hence, the proposed algorithm is able to improve handover performance. Index Terms—Predicted Received Signal Strength (PRSS), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Vertical Handoff Decision (VHD), Quality of Service (QoS), Point of Attachment (PoA). I. INTRODUCTION Heterogeneous wireless networks are one of the most important structures that are needed for deployment of wireless technologies such as 4G mobile systems. The heterogeneous network is the group of technologies which can be accessed to allow the user to have seamless mobility and best quality of service at all time such as high coverage of cellular networks and high bandwidth of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) [1]. To allow seamless mobility and always best connected services to mobile user, there is a need to develop an efficient Vertical Handoff Decision (VHD) algorithm. Mobility management comprises of Location management and Handover management. The information delivery is being tracked with the help of Location management and discovers its current Point of Attachment (PoA). Although, the Handover management maintains a mobile node’s active connection while moving from one PoA to another [2]. Handover is defined as the process in which the channel frequency, time slot, spreading code or may be combination any of them is being changed while the current call is in progress. Handoff is divided into two categories as horizontal and vertical handoff on the basis of the kind of network under use [3]. There is a one more kind of handover, known as group handover was produced at the time trains, buses or other vehicles are on the way. The group handovers or cooperative handovers are used to balance the load through the utilization of cooperative communication [4]. II. RELATED WORK Lots of work has been done by researchers on the VHD process to minimize the handoff failures and unnecessary handoff. Few of them are listed as follows. In an existing travelling distance prediction handoff algorithm proposed by Yan et. al, the handoff occurs when the predicted travelling distance is greater than the distance threshold [5]. This algorithm provides constant values of probability of handover failure and unnecessary handover. The constant value of probability of handover failure and unnecessary handover is very high for low velocity user. After that an enhanced VHD model based on Predicted Received Signal Strength (PRSS) and dwell time value is proposed by Kunarak and Suleesathira (2013). The