Handover management for mobile nodes in IPv6 networks

We analyze IPv6 handover over wireless LAN. Mobile IPv6 is designed to manage mobile nodes' movements between wireless IPv6 networks. Nevertheless, the active communications of a mobile node are interrupted until the handover completes. Therefore, several extensions to Mobile IPv6 have been proposed to reduce the handover latency and the number of lost packets. We describe two of them, hierarchical Mobile IPv6, which manages local movements into a domain, and fast handover protocol, which allows the use of layer 2 triggers to anticipate the handover. We expose the specific handover algorithms proposed by all these methods. We also evaluate the handover latency over IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN. We compare the layer 2 and layer 3 handover latency in the Mobile IPv6 case in order to show the saving of time expected by using anticipation. We conclude by showing how to adapt the IEEE 802.11b control frames to set up such anticipation.     

Analysis and Evaluation of Mobile IPv6 Handovers over Wireless LAN

In this paper, we analyze the IPv6 handover over wireless LANs. Mobile IPv6 is designed to manage mobile nodes movements between wireless IPv6 networks. Nevertheless, a mobile node cannot receive IP packets on its new point of attachment until the handover completes. Therefore, a number of extensions to Mobile IPv6 have been proposed to reduce the handover latency and the number of lost packets. We focus on Fast Mobile IPv6 which is an extension of Mobile IPv6 that allows the use of L2 triggers to anticipate the handover. We compare the handover latency in four specific cases: basic Mobile IPv6, the forwarding method of Mobile IPv6, the Anticipated method, and the Tunnel-Based Handover. The results of the handover latency are calculated with the L2 properties of IEEE 802.11b. In particular, we take into account the L2 handover for different configurations of the wireless network.     

A forward fast media independent handover control scheme for Proxy Mobile IPv6 (FFMIH-PMIPv6) over heterogeneous wireless mobile network

Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) is a networked-based handover protocol for the IP layer, i.e., the layer 3 mobility management protocol. In this work, we integrate fast handover and IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) Services with PMIPv6 to improve the handover performance over the heterogeneous wireless network environment. Since it may have multiple candidate destination networks to which a Mobile Node can select for handover, it needs to consider not only the signal strength but also the corresponding networking situation for the proper selection of the next network. To reduce the packet loss situation, the multicast mechanism is adopted to forward packets to these candidate destination networks during the handover processing period. In this work, a Forward Fast Media Independent Handover Control Scheme for Proxy Mobile IPv6 (FFMIH-PMIPv6) is proposed based on the aforementioned concerns. Through the simulations for performance analysis, it shows that the proposed FFMIH-PMIPv6 can have better handover performance in terms of handover latency, packet loss rate and throughput.     

A Robust Seamless Handover Scheme for the Support of Multimedia Services in Heterogeneous Emerging Wireless Networks

With the rapid development of wireless technologies and numerous types of mobile devices, the need to support seamless multimedia services in Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing (MUC) is growing. To support the seamless handover, several mobility protocols such as Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) (Johnson et al., Mobility Support in IPv6, IETF, RFC 3775, 2004) and fast handover for the MIPv6 (FMIPv6) (Koodli et al. Past handovers for mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6), IETF, RFC 4068, 2005) were developed. However, MIPv6 depreciates the Quality-of-Service (QoS) especially in multimedia service applications because of the long handover latency and packet loss problem. To solve these problems in the MIPv6, FMIPv6 is proposed in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). However, FMIPv6 is not robust for the multimedia services in heterogeneous emerging wireless networks when the MN may move to another visited network in contrast with its anticipation. In MUC, the possibility of service failure is more increased because mobile users can frequently change the access networks according to their mobility in heterogeneous wireless access networks such as 3Generation (3G), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) and Bluetooth co-existed. In this paper, we propose a robust seamless handover scheme for the multimedia services in heterogeneous emerging wireless networks. The proposed scheme reduces the handover latency and handover initiation time when handover may fail through the management of tentative Care-of Addresses (CoAs) that does not require Duplicate Address Detection (DAD). Through performance evaluation, we show that our scheme provides more robust handover mechanism than other scheme such as FMIPv6 for the multimedia services in heterogeneous emerging wireless networks.     

Handover management in integrated WLAN and mobile WiMAX networks [recent advances and evolution of WLAN and WMAN standards]

Recently there has been much effort, in both academia and industry, to integrate a plethora of wireless technologies in order to provide ubiquitous broadband access to mobile users. Handover management is still one of the most challenging issues to be solved for seamless integration of wireless networks. This article addresses the integration of IEEE 802.11 WLANs and IEEE 802.16 WMANs, focusing mainly on the handover management aspects. First, we describe architectures, futuristic application scenarios such as the envisioned heterogeneous multihop wireless networks (HMWNs) and moving networks, as well as the related research issues. Second, we present IEEE 802.21, a new emerging standard aimed at providing a framework for media-independent handover (MIH) among heterogeneous networks. Finally, we discuss how the MIH framework can help handover management for the integrated network.     

利用上下文转移实现移动IPv6上的IMS无缝切换

Mobility support for the next generation IPv6 networks has been one of the recent research issues due to the growing demand for wireless services over internet. In the other hand, 3GPP has introduced IP Multimedia Subsystem as the next generation IP based infrastructure for wireless and wired multimedia services. In this paper we present two context transfer mechanisms based on predictive and reactive schemes, to support seamless handover in IMS over Mobile IPv6. Those schemes reduce handover latency by transferring appropriate session ＇information between the old and the new access networks. Moreover, we present two methods for QoS parameters negotiations to preserve service quality along the mobile user movement path. The performances of the proposed mechanisms are evaluated by simulations.     

Analysis of IPv6 handovers in IEEE 802.16 environment

The second generation of WiMAX solutions, based on IEEE 802.16-2005 standard, offers limited mobility support. Unfortunately, after quickly changing the point of attachment on the WiMAX data link layer (DLL), very slow and inefficient IPv6 reconfiguration takes place. Delays introduced by automatic configuration (DHCPv6 and IPv6 protocols) and Mobile IPv6 can easily diminish or even render useless all benefits gained using the efficient handover performed on DLL. As handover is a crucial process in mobile cellular environments, reasons behind delays introduced by IPv6 layer mechanisms have to be analyzed and appropriate countermeasures applied. In order to analyse influence of different factors on the handover delay a simulation environment modelling the full handover procedure in a WiMAX environment has been developed. It allows simulation and analysis of various mobility related issues, offering support for multiple base stations with groups of subscribers, both fixed and mobile, with various mobility models. Also support for tight integration with higher layers (IPv6, DHCPv6, and Mobile IPv6) is fully implemented. All stages of full IPv6 handover in IEEE 802.16 environment, focusing on major reasons of reconfiguration delays are described. The paper presents components, functional requirements and architecture of the simulation environment, together with example simulation results. The obtained results clearly show that most significant delays are caused by the IPv6 layer. The areas of improvement in several autoconfiguration mechanisms are identified. Proposals include novel use of DHCPv6 relays for remote configuration, solving DAD delays, limiting Binding Update procedure in Mobile IPv6, and configuring routing through DHCPv6 communication. A universal metric for assessing impact of every stage on handover efficiency is also defined. Several proposed improvements to the IPv6 handover process are evaluated. Discussion regarding possible generalization of best improvement proposals and remarks on further research areas conclude this paper.     

Fast handover support in a WLAN environment: challenges and perspectives

While handover management has traditionally used radio-technology-specific mechanisms, the need for integration of this diverse network environment has obviated the "push" of the handover functionality to the generic IP layer that serves the rendezvous point of underlying technologies. In this context, we study and analyze the implications of the link-layer agnostic operation of IP handover control on handover performance, having as a reference the fast mobile IPv6 protocol. We show that the behavior of the protocol (i.e., whether a reactive or proactive operation will be executed) is highly dependent on the timely availability of link layer information. A non-exhaustive list of generic link-layer triggers used for this purpose, as identified by the IEEE 802.21 WG, is also presented. Last, we apply this generic framework to a WLAN environment running fast mobile IPv6 and study the improvements in fast handoff support.     

一种新的基于移动IPv6的快速切换方案

基本的移动IPv6（MIPv6）切换延迟非常大,不能满足实时业务的要求。本文基于对MIPv6的切换时延的分析,提出了一种IEEE802．11无线局域网环境下MIPv6的低时延切换方法,该方法通过结合使用连接触发器和快速路由器公告,并通过IP地址与MAC地址的映射机制来优化切换过程。仿真结果表明,该方法能够有效降低节点切换过程的时延,同时其性能优于以往相关的工作。     

UMTS-WLAN垂直切换优化策略

随着移动Internet用户对IP业务宽带无线接入需求的急剧增长，通用移动通信系统（UMTS）和无线局域网（WLAN）的融合已成为亟需解决的问题．文章结合移动IPv6快速切换与基于隧道的快速切换技术，提出一种基于双向边隧道的优化策略，来实现UMTS-WLAN两种接入网络之间的无缝垂直切换．利用MN的旧转交地址截获并缓存由CN送往MN的数据分组，然后通过在旧接入路由和目标网络接入路由间预先建立的双向边隧道将分组重定向到新的网络。     

An enhanced fast handover triggering mechanism for Fast Proxy Mobile IPv6

Handover delay performance is a critical issue to support real-time applications in wireless networks. To address this issue, this paper presents an Enhanced fast handover Triggering Mechanism (ETM) to improve the handover performance of mobile nodes (MNs) in Fast Proxy Mobile IPv6 (FPMIPv6). Making use of the information from the link layer, the ETM predicts two cases that the MNs perform in the reactive handover mode. Then, it establishes the bi-directional tunnel in advance for fast handover. As a result, the reactive handover delay is significantly reduced. Integrating the ETM into FPMIPv6 forms an enhanced Fast Proxy Mobile IPv6 (eFPMIPv6) protocol. Simulation experiments show that with the presented ETM mechanism, the eFPMIPv6 outperforms the original FPMIPv6 in terms of the overall handover performance.     

Fast Intra-Network and Cross-Layer Handover (FINCH) for WiMAX and Mobile Internet

To support fast and efficient handovers in mobile WiMAX, we propose Fast Intra-Network and Cross-layer Handover (FINCH) for intradomain (intra-CSN) mobility management. FINCH is a complementary protocol to Mobile IP (MIP), which deals with interdomain (inter-CSN) mobility management in mobile WiMAX. FINCH can reduce not only the handover latency but also the end-to-end latency for MIP. Paging extension for FINCH is also proposed to enhance the energy efficiency. The proposed FINCH is especially suitable for real-time services in frequent handover environment, which is important for future mobile WiMAX networks. In addition, FINCH is a generic protocol for other IEEE 802-series standards. This is especially beneficial for the integration of heterogeneous networks, for instance, the integration of WiMAX and WiFi networks. Both mathematical analysis and simulation are developed to analyze and compare the performance of FINCH with other protocols. The results show that FINCH can support fast and efficient link layer and intradomain handovers. The numerical results can also be used to select proper network configurations.     

WiMAX移动性的改进与增强

基于IEEE 802.16协议族的WiMAX网络将按照固定、游牧、移动的趋势发展,其中802.16e协议是面向全面移动性的。分析了802.16e协议空中接口媒体接入控制层(MAC)在切换方面的改进和物理层(PHY)针对移动性的改进并进行参数选择。针对802.16e网络架构对移动场景支持的不足,提出一种新的适合移动性的WiMAX网络增强型体系架构。     

Achieving Faster Handovers in Mobile WiMAX Networks

WiMAX is a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) specified by IEEE 802.16. It provides the broadband wireless access for mobile devices. In such a system, to enable the mobility, the handover is supported to maintain the connectivity of the mobile station (MS) when it moves from the coverage of the serving base station (BS) to the coverage of a neighbor BS. In the handover process, scanning is required to find a suitable target BS, and network re-entry is needed to establish the new connection. However, in the standard handover process, a long latency to data transmissions is caused resulting in the serious interruption to ongoing services. In this paper, an improved handover scheme is proposed to reduce the latency introduced in the handover process by shortening the scanning and enhancing the network re-entry. The proposed scanning strategy reduces the latency by reducing the number of neighbor BSs to be scanned through estimating the rough location of the MS. The enhanced network re-entry reduces the delay by updating transport connection identifiers (CIDs) early to allow the fast resumption of active applications. Simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed handover scheme. The results show that the proposed handover scheme reduces the data transmission latency during handover significantly.     

Reactive Handover Optimization in IPv6-Based Mobile Networks

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the need to support moving hosts and moving networks in IPv6-based mobile networks. As the number of such hosts and networks grows, so will the demand for delay sensitive real-time applications, such as voice over IP (VoIP), that require seamless handover. Two well-known approaches to reduce the handover latency have been proposed in the literature: proactive and reactive approaches. While proactive handover is known to generally outperform reactive handover, its reliability and practicality are still questionable since it basically depends on predictive information which may be unreliable in some cases. In this paper, based on the standard specification for IPv6 mobility support, we analyze the existing movement detection and address configuration procedures which are the main components of reactive handover approach. We also propose a novel reactive handover procedure which employs our optimized movement detection and address configuration schemes. The proposal is simple and robust because it does not need any predictive information and it requires a minimum number of signaling messages. The performance evaluation shows that the proposal substantially reduces the signaling load on wireless/wired networks and its handover latency is reduced enough to support seamless services.     

基于重叠网络的移动IPv6快速切换

基本的移动IPv6切换延迟太大，不能满足实时业务的要求。本文提出了一种基于重叠网络的移动IPv6快速切换算法，这种算法通过在两个不同的IPv6子网间设置重叠网络来实现IP层的无缝(零延迟)切换。文中给出了算法实现的网络结构及其切换过程，并且对其性能进行了分析。算法实现了移动IPv6快速切换，在大部分情况下都可以达到最佳性能。     

Improving Mobile IPv6 handover and authentication in wireless network with E‐HCF

Mobile IP allows a mobile node to maintain a continuous connectivity to the Internet when moving from one access point to another. However, due to the link switching delay and to Mobile IP handover operations, packets designated to mobile nodes can be delayed or lost during the handover period. Moreover, every time a new attach point is confirmed, the mobile node, its home agent and its corresponding node must be authenticated mutually. This paper presents a new control function called Extended Handover Control Function (E‐HCF) in order to improve handover performance and authentication in the context of Mobile IPv6 over wireless networks. With an analytical model and some OPNET simulations, we show in this paper that our solution allows provision of low latency, low packet loss and mutual authentication to the standard handover of Mobile IPv6. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fast RSVP: Efficient RSVP Mobility Support for Mobile IPv6

In recent years, with the development of mobile communication technologies and the increase of available wireless transmission bandwidth, deploying multimedia services in next generation mobile IPv6 networks has become an inevitable trend. RSVP (resource reservation protocol) proposed by the IETF is designed for hardwired and fixed networks and can not be used in mobile environments. This paper proposes a protocol, called Fast RSVP, to reserve resources for mobile IPv6. The protocol adopts a cross-layer design approach where two modules (RSVP module and Mobile IPv6 module) at different layers cooperate with each other. Fast RSVP divides a handover process with QoS guarantees into two stages: (1) setup of the resource reservation neighbor tunnel and (2) resource reservation on the optimized route. It can help a mobile node realize fast handover with QoS guarantees as well as avoid resource wasting by triangular routes, advanced reservations and duplicate reservations. In addition, fast RSVP reserves “guard channels” for handover sessions, thus greatly reducing the handover session forced termination rate while maintaining high performance of the network. Based on extensive performance analysis and simulations, Fast RSVP, compared with existing methods of resource reservation in mobile environments, performs better in terms of packet delay and throughput during handover, QoS recovery time after handover, resource reservation cost, handover session forced termination rate and overall session completion rate.     

A Fast IMS Service Recovery Mechanism for the Handover Over MIH-Capable Heterogeneous Networks

IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) is the core multimedia network in the next generation all-IP environment. It provides access independence for multimedia applications across fixed and mobile access networks. When a roaming IMS subscriber connects to IMS through mobile access networks, handover becomes a critical issue; this needs to be addressed. Since IMS concerns application layer handover for session mobility, the application layer handover takes a long time for recovering the suspended sessions according to the standard IMS session reestablishment procedure. This introduces noticeable service interruption to end users and cannot be tolerated for real-time applications. In this paper we propose a fast IMS service recovery mechanism to shorten the service recovery latency by combining the IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover service and the IRTF Media-Independent Pre-Authentication frameworks. The proposed mechanism performs the necessary IMS registration and QoS re-negotiation procedures in advance of lower-layer handover. Thus it reduces the service recovery latency for suspended services. With parallel design in time, the proposed mechanism is able to shorten overall handover relevant latency as well. Technical examination shows that it is easy to deploy the proposed mechanism in current multimedia service environments.