An efficient mobility management in wireless overlay networks

Abstract

Mobile IP (and Ipv6) is used to keep track of location information and make the data available to the mobile device anytime, anywhere. It designed to address the macro mobility management, it does not address micro-level mobility issues such as handoff latency and packet loss. In this paper, we propose a mobility management scheme to handle the movements of mobile nodes among different wireless network technologies. Our scheme combines: (a) A hierarchical mobility management architecture to hide mobility of mobile nodes within the foreign domain from the home agent (b) The use of multicast as the packet forwarding mechanism from the gateway foreign agent to the base stations (c) A scheme for users with high-mobility/low-mobility to minimize packet loss (d) The use of forwarding pointers to help in providing efficient location management without informing the home agent. We also present simulation results showing that the loss rate can be minimized for faster moving mobiles. The case of a mobile changing speed is also addressed.