The present invention modifies existing media independent handover (MIH) function (MIHF) frame format as defined by the IEEE 802.21 standard. In one embodiment, the variable load of the MIHF frame is modified to eliminate the MIHF variable header by defining the MIHF identification (ID) field and the session ID field as fixed fields in the MIHF fixed header. Thus, the MIHF variable load is only made up of the MIHF payload. In another embodiment, a field such as an information element (IE), a header, or MIH service data such as a command or an event, is represented by a type field, a length field and a value field (TLV). The length of the value field is exactly 128 octets, and the length field only occupies one octet.