A framework for end-to-end RSVP context transfer in mobile IPv6

Abstract

Providing Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantees and mobility support for Internet devices has become a hot research topic in the Next Generation Internet research, since mobile computing is getting widespread. Context transfers allow better node mobility support, and avoid re-initiation of signaling to and from a Mobile Node (MN). However, Context Transfer Protocol (CTP) [1] proposed by IETF can not meet the need of end-to-end QoS mechanisms because contexts are only transferred between Access Routers (ARs). This paper presents a framework for end-to-end QoS context transfer based on the architecture of F-HMIPv6, which may provide an end-to-end QoS context transfer for real-time applications, therefore they can get promptly the same forwarding process, minimize the handover service disruption, and avoid initiating the end-to-end QoS signaling from scratch after an MN performs handovers. The Context Transfer Data message containing the QoS context information, a hop-by-hop extension IPv6 option header, is sent from the previous access router (PAR) to the next access router (NAR) via the Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) where old path and new path meet each other. The QoS entities in the nodes between MAP and NAR will be required to check the QoS context information and reserve appropriate resources for MN’s sessions and update the new path data in the QoS entities. After successful context transfers, the resources reserved for MN’s sessions will be released on the old path. Our scheme may also reduce the signaling overhead and handover latencies by adopting the F-HMIPv6 [2] architecture.