Localized Mobility Management in MPLS-based Access Networks

Abstract

The continuous efforts made towards efficient mobility management in next-generation wireless networks are one of the major challenges for next-generation mobile systems. To track host mobility, the IETF has developed some mobility management protocols such as Mobile IP and Proxy Mobile IPv6. These protocols set up a tunnel to forward packets to the mobile node while the user is away from its home network. The tunneling method provided by Multi-Protocol Label Switching can be profitably used to take advantage of the Multi-Protocol Label Switching traffic engineering capability to achieve fast-reroute when a mobile node changes its point of attachment to the network. Moreover, service disruption during handoffs causes excessive packet loss that needs to be minimized to support quality of service requirements of emerging applications. We present a performance evaluation and numerical results of the most representative host-based and network-based mobility management approaches. We highlight the importance of the tunneling method with special attention to those protocols that have integrated Multi-Protocol Label Switching in its access network.