LIJ hand-over for wireless mobile ATM

Wireless mobile ATM offers a transparent access to a wired ATM network. Fixed ATM network protocols are not designed for mobile services. Therefore it is important to provide mobile services using standard signalling. In this paper a signalling scheme is discussed enabling mobile connections without the introduction of new signalling messages and without the need for centralised mobility control entities. The hand-over signalling builds on the leaf initiated join (LIJ) capability defined in UNI 4.0. As stated in the hand-over paradigm, it is essential to have an integrated solution for both unicast and multicast connections. This directive is met with the LIJ hand-over scheme, as it offers a unified and uniform solution for all connection types. With LIJ a truly integrated and distributed solution is obtained as all switches in the network can reroute connections. Hence the classical obstacles to implement full scale mobile services are dissolved.