9805538 Hughes, Herman D. Michigan State University CISE Postdoc: Experimental Research on Wireless ATM Network This research focuses on investigating extensions of the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) signaling protocol to support connection hand-offs in a hybrid network environment. A hierarchical hand-off scheme is developed to support connection hand-offs for the integration of the wireless and wireline ATM networks. This hand-off scheme combines the clustering, the incremental connection re-establishment, and the virtual hierarchical network techniques to provide fast and efficient connection re-routings. A special mechanism is included in this scheme to reroute undelivered and mis-routed cells to their destination, which in turn reduces cell loss due to connection hand-offs. The hand-off procedure under consideration is evaluated by using two approaches. First, an analysis to be conducted presents the theoretical performance, determining metrics such as connection disruption time, buffer requirement, and cell loss rate. Second, experiments (via wireless devices and emulations) are to be conducted by using the High Speed Networking and Performance (HSNP) Laboratory ATM testbed. This research is significant because it deals with key interoperability issues relating to wireless ATM networks. The Postdoctoral Research Associate will play a pivotal role in all aspects of this project, including the experimental portion.
