Fast MIPv6 extensions supporting seamless multicast handovers

Abstract

This paper presents the application of appropriate extensions to the Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6) protocol that enable mobile nodes to execute seamless multicast remote subscriptions while changing their network attachment point. The proposed handover supporting mechanism achieves minimization of the multicast service disruption period by suggesting the conditional tunneling of multicast traffic among the network nodes involved in the procedure. Tunneling is performed after the establishment of multicast membership information at the access router at which the mobile is anticipated to attach, but before the actual handover execution. In this way the mobile is enabled to receive the requested multicast traffic immediately after its attachment to the new network. The paper presents quantitative comparative OPNET simulation results, extracted from an IEEE 802.11 WLAN indoor simulation topology. Performance results are provided for metrics such as the service disruption time perceived by video streaming recipients executing inter-domain handovers and the effort consumed for tunneling, while varying parameters such as the link-layer trigger generation process configuration, the inter-access network delay and the mobile's speed. The performed evaluation shows that the proposed mechanism attains better performance in comparison to a similar mechanism, to the expense of a slight increase of the resource expenditure for the proactive to handover tunneling purposes. Furthermore, a vulnerability of the FMIPv6 protocol to the handover control and prediction mechanisms has been identified, presenting however possible ways to deal with it.