Proxy mobile IPv6-based seamless handover

Abstract

A prospective next generation wireless network is expected to integrate harmoniously into an IP-based core network. It is widely anticipated that IP-layer handover is a feasible solution to global mobility. However, the performance of IP-layer handover based on basic Mobile IP (MIP) cannot support real time services very well due to long handover delay. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Network-based Localized Mobility Management (NETLMM) working group developed a network-based localized mobility management protocol called Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) to reduce the handoff latency of MIPv6. Moreover, PMIPv6 provides the IP with the mobility to support User Equipments (UEs) without it being required to participate in any mobility-related signaling. This was one of the reasons why the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) chose PMIPv6 as one of the mobility management protocols when defining the Evolved Packed System (EPS). One of the key features of the standard is its support for access system selection based on a combination of operator policies, user preference and access network conditions. Although Android, which is one of the most popular "mobile" operating system, is not officially supporting IPv6 nor PMIPv6, this paper analyzes the required challenges for IPv6 and PMIPv6 usage and handover performance with real-time services. The analysis and measurement results show that, with the modifications presented IPv6 and PMIPv6 may be supported and utilized for localized mobility management and seamless handovers. ... © 2013 Springer-Verlag.