Efficient Mobility and Multihoming Support for Mountain Rescue

Abstract

Introducing an IP-based communication system into the mountain rescue domain would enable carrying out search and rescue missions in an effective way. With efficient mobility and multihoming support, a Mountain Rescue Team would be able to establish more effective and reliable Internet communication. In this paper, we present the Multihomed Mobile Network Architecture (MMNA), a comprehensive multihomed mobility solution for complex nested mobility scenarios. It provides a multihoming management mechanism for gateway discovery and selection, on top of an efficient multihomed mobility model integrating different mobility and multihoming protocols. The design of the MMNA solution is first presented. We then describe how the MMNA was experimentally implemented and evaluated in a test bed setup to examine its effectiveness and feasibility considering a use case example of a mountain rescue scenario. The results highlight the practicality and advantages of deploying the MMNA into such a critical real-world scenario.