Abstract-Supporting mobility is one the major challenges in wireless networks. To support mobility in any wireless network, the application of an efficient handover control scheme is crucial. In hard handover scenarios in mobile WiMAX networks, a Mobile Station

Supporting mobility is one the major challenges in wireless networks. To support mobility in any wireless network, the application of an efficient handover control scheme is crucial. In hard handover scenarios in mobile WiMAX networks, a Mobile Station (MS) may experience handover disruptions and handover delays during transmission which could result in connection drops and waste of resources. In order to address some of these potential problems associated with hard handovers, a Relative Signal Strength with Threshold and adaptive Hysteresis and Distance (RSTH-D) scheme is proposed in this paper. This scheme seeks to initiate quick handover so as to reduce handover delays, avoid interruption of transmission and effectively utilise available radio resources. It is shown, through the simulation results obtained, that the proposed scheme has significant performance benefits compared to relative signal strength with hysteresis and threshold schemes. The performance of the various schemes is compared in terms of handover delay, handover probability and the average number of handovers.