A Route Optimized Distributed IP-Based Mobility Management Protocol for Seamless Handoff across Wireless Mesh Networks

Abstract

A Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) can provide Internet connectivity to end users through heterogenous access network technologies. However, the mobility of mobile nodes across these access networks in WMNs results in service disruption. Existing mobility management protocols are designed for single hop networks and are centralized in nature. A Distributed IP-based Mobility Management Protocol (DIMMP) is proposed in this paper that provides seamless mobility with service continuation for mobile nodes when they roam across WMNs. Instead of relying on a centralized mobility anchor, the mobility functionality is distributed at multiple nodes in the WMN, in order to reduce the chances of potential single point of failure. The proposed protocol manages both types of mobilities i.e. intra-WMN and inter-WMN and uses a new enhanced route optimization procedure. Simulation results show that this work has contributed by improving the performance of handoff procedure with respect to handoff latency, packet loss and signalling overhead, as compared to the existing protocols.