Measuring IP Performance Metrics on Mobile Network with Heterogeneous Wireless Technologies

The new measurement scheme of IP performance metrics is proposed for the mobile network in heterogeneous wireless network environment. In the proposed scheme, when Mobile Nodes (MNs) inside the mobile network needs to understand the condition of multiple communication paths outside the mobile network, they can get IP performance metrics, such as delay, jitter, bandwidth, packet loss, etc., irrespective of the presence or absence of measurement functionality. At the same time, the proposed scheme does not require the MN to be involved in measuring IP performance metrics. The Multihomed Mobile Router (MMR) with heterogeneous wireless interfaces measures IP performance metrics on behalf of the MNs inside the mobile network. Then, MNs can get measured IP performance metrics from the MMR using L3 messages. The proposed scheme can reduce burden and power consumption of MNs with limited resource and battery power since MNs don't measure IP performance metrics directly. In addition, it can reduce considerably traffic overhead over wireless links on multiple measurement paths since signaling messages and injected testing traffic are reduced.