A cross‐layer partner‐based fast handoff mechanism for IEEE 802.11 wireless networks

In wireless/mobile networks, users freely and frequently change their access points (APs) while they are communicating with other users. To support the mobility of mobile nodes (MNs), Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is used to inform the information of MN's home address and current care‐of‐address (CoA) to its home agent. MIPv6 suffers from a long delay latency and high packet losses (PLs) because MIPv6 does not support micromobility. A Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) is proposed which provides micromobility and macromobility to reduce handoff latency (HL) by employing a hierarchical network structure. In this paper, we propose a cross‐layer partner‐based fast handoff mechanism based on HMIPv6, called the PHMIPv6 protocol. Our PHMIPv6 protocol is a cross‐layer, layer‐2 + layer‐3, and cooperative approach. A cooperative node, called a partner node (PN), is adopted in the PHMIPv6 protocol. A new layer‐2 trigger scheme used in the PHMIPv6 protocol accurately predicts the next AP and then invites a cooperative PN in the area of the next AP. With the cooperation of the PN, the CoA can be pre‐acquired and duplicate address detection operation can be pre‐executed by the PN before the MN initializes the handoff request. The PHMIPv6 protocol significantly reduces the handoff delay time and PLs. In the mathematical analysis, we verified that our PHMIPv6 protocol offers a better HL than the MIPv6, HMIPv6, and SHMIPv6 protocols. Finally, the experimental results also illustrate that the PHMIPv6 protocol actually achieves performance improvements in the handoff delay time, PL rate, and handoff delay jitter. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.