RTUComputer ScienceYr 2022 · Sem 82022

Q4Mobile Computing

Question

2 marks

What is the difference between soft and hard handoff?

Answer

Hard Handoff ("Break before Make") physically severs the old connection before establishing the new one, causing a micro-drop. Soft Handoff ("Make before Break") mathematically maintains two simultaneous connections during the transition.

Hard handoff (used in GSM) is a violent hardware switch; if the new tower fails to connect, the call drops catastrophically. Soft handoff (used in CDMA) is mathematically elegant; the phone communicates with two towers simultaneously on the same frequency, and the network seamlessly merges the data streams.

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