An inter-PAN mobility support scheme for IP-based wireless sensor networks and its applications

Mobility support for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can significantly extend the use of WSN in many fields, such as industrial control, healthcare and smart home. And high-efficiency mobility support schemes are essential for WSN because this is a typical energy constrained network. This paper proposes a LoW cost inter-PAN Mobility Support Scheme (LoWMS) for IPv6 based WSN, which follows the network based idea. The scheme aims at reducing signaling cost when sensor nodes move between two Personal Area Networks. In order to realize it, the handoff related control messages are designed to transmit in link layer, and resolution for ping-pong handoff is also given. Simulation results show the novel scheme efficiently reduces the amount of handoff messages, which is benefit for energy saving of WSN. At the end of the paper, we illustrate two possible application scenarios which could be beneficial from LoWMS, one is healthcare system, and another is logistics and storage.