Improving mobile IP handover latency on end-to-end TCP in UMTS/WCDMA networks

Abstract

Network-layer handover latency is one of the fundamental limitations in any IP-based cellular network. A long handover latency results in high packet losses and severely degrades its end-to-end TCP performance. Delay sensitive real-time applications demands packet lossless and low latency Quality-of-Service (QoS) guarantee during handover. S-MIP [4] mitigates these effects by integrating hierarchical approach [2] and fast-handover mechanism [3] to achieve a seamless handover architecture with no packet losses and extremely low handover latency operating in WLAN environment. The challenge to provide seamless handover scheme in UMTS IP-based networks lies on different mobility management and access network handover techniques employed between the heterogeneous UMTS/WCDMA and IP networks. We present a converged network architecture that extend and synthesize the key benefits of S-MIP into UMTS/ WCDMA packet networks. The effect of this seamless handover architecture under UMTS environments on end-to-end TCP communications is evaluated.