Handoff Latency Research Articles

DM3: distributed mobility management in MPLS‐based access networks

SUMMARYOver the last few years, mobility management in the Internet has been one of the most active fields in communications. The recent increasing mobile traffic demand is having an important impact on the design of mobile networks and some limitations are arising from traditional network deployments. In order to deal with this new scenario, mobility management network architectures are being redesigned towards a more distributed operation. In this paper, we introduce DM3 (distributed mobility management MPLS), a fully distributed architecture designed to track efficiently the mobility of users in the current paradigm of evolving mobile IP networks. In DM3 architecture, several nodes are distributed in the MPLS‐based access network and the mobile nodes are served by a close‐by mobility anchor. With this operation, we reduce the routing and registration update costs, and provide a low handoff latency with a minimal packet loss rate. Analytical and experimental results are presented to justify the benefits of our proposed architecture. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fuzzy Logic based Handoff Latency Reduction Mechanism in Layer 2 of Heterogeneous Mobile IPv6 Networks

Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is one of the pioneer standards that support mobility in IPv6 environment. It has been designed to support different types of technologies for providing seamless communications in next generation network. However, MIPv6 and subsequent standards have some limitations due to its handoff latency. In this paper, a fuzzy logic based mechanism is proposed to reduce the handoff latency of MIPv6 for Layer 2 (L2) by scanning the Access Points (APs) while the Mobile Node (MN) is moving among different APs. Handoff latency occurs when the MN switches from one AP to another in L2. Heterogeneous network is considered in this research in order to reduce the delays in L2. Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and velocity of the MN are considered as the input of fuzzy logic technique. This technique helps the MN to measure optimum signal quality from APs for the speedy mobile node based on fuzzy logic input rules and makes a list of interfaces. A suitable interface from the list of available interfaces can be selected like WiFi, WiMAX or GSM. Simulation results show 55% handoff latency reduction and 50% packet loss improvement in L2 compared to standard to MIPv6.

A comparative signaling cost analysis of Macro Mobility scheme in NEMO (MM-NEMO) with mobility management protocol

NEMO BSP is an upgraded addition to Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6). As MIPv6 and its enhancements (i.e. HMIPv6) possess some limitations like higher handoff latency, packet loss, NEMO BSP also faces all these shortcomings by inheritance. Network Mobility (NEMO) is involved to handle the movement of Mobile Router (MR) and it's Mobile Network Nodes (MNNs) during handoff. Hence it is essential to upgrade the performance of mobility management protocol to obtain continuous session connectivity with lower delay and packet loss in NEMO environment. The completion of handoff process in NEMO BSP usually takes longer period since MR needs to register its single primary care of address (CoA) with home network that may cause performance degradation of the applications running on Mobile Network Nodes. Moreover, when a change in point of attachment of the mobile network is accompanied by a sudden burst of signaling messages, "Signaling Storm" occurs which eventually results in temporary congestion, packet delays or even packet loss. This effect is particularly significant for wireless environment where a wireless link is not as steady as a wired link since bandwidth is relatively limited in wireless link. Hence, providing continuous Internet connection without any interruption through applying multihoming technique and route optimization mechanism in NEMO are becoming the center of attention to the current researchers. In this paper, we propose a handoff cost model to compare the signaling cost of MM-NEMO with NEMO Basic Support Protocol (NEMO BSP) and HMIPv6.The numerical results shows that the signaling cost for the MM-NEMO scheme is about 69.6 % less than the NEMO-BSP and HMIPv6.

A Reinforcement Sensor Embedded Vertical Handoff Controller for Vehicular Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Vehicular communication platforms that provide real-time access to wireless networks have drawn more and more attention in recent years. IEEE 802.11p is the main radio access technology that supports communication for high mobility terminals, however, due to its limited coverage, IEEE 802.11p is usually deployed by coupling with cellular networks to achieve seamless mobility. In a heterogeneous cellular/802.11p network, vehicular communication is characterized by its short time span in association with a wireless local area network (WLAN). Moreover, for the media access control (MAC) scheme used for WLAN, the network throughput dramatically decreases with increasing user quantity. In response to these compelling problems, we propose a reinforcement sensor (RFS) embedded vertical handoff control strategy to support mobility management. The RFS has online learning capability and can provide optimal handoff decisions in an adaptive fashion without prior knowledge. The algorithm integrates considerations including vehicular mobility, traffic load, handoff latency, and network status. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm can adaptively adjust the handoff strategy, allowing users to stay connected to the best network. Furthermore, the algorithm can ensure that RSUs are adequate, thereby guaranteeing a high quality user experience.

Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 Mobility Management in Heterogeneous 3G/WLAN Networks

The research and development of next generation networks results in continuously growing in heterogeneity of wireless systems. Those systems also offer users the increasing possibility of roaming between different networks, which undoubtedly needs seamless integration. As mobile users continue to expand their requirements for seamless roaming, a good handoff mechanism is necessary especially for cellular networks and wireless local area networks. The most critical problem faced in the handoff mechanism is that users may need immediate data transmission. However, immediate data transmission is always obstructed because handoff latency occurs. In this paper, we propose a Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 handoff scheme using active measurement-foreign mobility agent to measure the residual bandwidth of each access point (AP) for handoff decision. As a result, the proposed scheme prevents whole efficiency from being affected by the registration time and improves immediate data transmission. In addition, a dual-threshold of the received signal strength is used to avoid the ping-pong effect. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the traditional Mobile IPv6 and enhanced multilayer Hierarchical Mobile IPv6.

An efficient cross layer based channel reservation method for vehicular networks

SUMMARYThe swift growth of the mobile users and limited availability of bandwidth lead to the requirement of effective channel allocation process. Channel allocation becomes tedious in vehicular ad hoc network, as the mobility of the nodes is high. So, in this paper, we propose a method called as cross layer based channel reservation with preemption (CCRP) method that performs channel allocation process by estimating the handoffs in vehicular ad hoc networks. The time estimated is communicated from physical layer to medium access control layer using a cross‐layer design. The reusability concept is used, and the channels are divided into three groups. The different cells acquire different groups based on the database status and exclusively to avoid interference. Preemption is incorporated to give the highest priority to real time originating calls and real time handoff calls. The performance of the proposed method, CCRP, is compared with the legacy systems such as cooperative reservation of service channels and very fast handover scheme in terms of dropping probability, blocking probability, and handoff latency. The results show that the proposed algorithm, CCRP, performs better in comparison. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Low Cost Route Optimization Scheme for Cluster-Based Proxy MIPv6 Protocol

Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) is a network based mobility protocol which has been designed to relieve the mobile nodes (MNs) from participating in the mobility process and to reduce the long handoff latency of the MIPv6 protocol. However, PMIPv6 incurs a long communication path due to the triangle routing problem, in which, all packets sent by MNs are obligated to pass through the local mobility anchor. Several solutions have been proposed to mitigate this issue. However, they still incur high signaling overhead to recover the Route Optimization (RO) status after handoff. In this paper, we propose a Cluster-Based RO (CBRO) scheme for the clustered architecture of the PMIPv6, in which, the Mobile Access Gateways (MAGs) are grouped into clusters with a distinguished Head MAG (HMAG) for each. In the proposed CBRO, the RO process is relied on the HMAGs to reduce the handoff latency while achieving a fast recovery of the optimized path after handoff. The proposed CBRO is evaluated analytically and compared with the basic PMIP and the current RO schemes. The obtained numerical results have shown that the proposed CBRO outperforms all other schemes in terms of signaling cost required to recover the RO status after handoff and the total cost performance metrics.

Performance analysis of Virtual Mobility Domain scheme vs. IPv6 mobility protocols

The population of mobile users seeking connectivity to the Internet has been growing over the years, spurred by the capabilities of handsets and the increasing rich Internet content and services. Mobility management to enable efficient Internet access for users on the move is thus gaining significance. IETF has standardized several protocols such as Mobile IPv6, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6, and Proxy Mobile IPv6 to provide mobility management on the IP network. With future Internet design initiatives gaining momentum, it is important that these initiatives consider mobility management as an integral part of the design. In this article, we introduce the concept of Virtual Mobility Domain and describe the main features and key strengths of Virtual Mobility Domain that are designed to provide mobility management in a newly proposed tiered Internet architecture. Instead of IP addressing, the proposed Virtual Mobility Domain uses a tiered-addressing scheme to identify a mobile node with a single address regardless of its location. The tiered addressing provides a dynamic address length which brings less signaling overhead and scalable management. We also propose a collaborative network-based mobility management mechanism to provide low-latency handoffs and less processing-overhead on the mobile node compared to the IPv6-based protocols. The proposed mobility scheme unifies inter and intra-domain mobility management by introducing common anchor cloud concept which provides a distributed management and seamless mobility experience. We present comparative qualitative and quantitative performance analysis of Virtual Mobility Domain and aforementioned IPv6-based mobility protocols for Intra-AS roaming support. We examine handoff latency and signaling overhead performance of each protocol based on numerical results retrieved from analytical models and OPNET modeler based simulations. The results from a comparative performance study show the potential for more efficient mobility management under the proposed Internet architecture.

Topology-aware handoff scheme for surveillance patrol robot

With the advances in wireless communication technology and artificial intelligence, robots are gradually being introduced as a part of our life. Similarly to most mobile devices, mobile robots suffer from handoff latency. This paper proposes TASPR, a Topology-Aware Surveillance Patrol Robot, which can integrate the robotic status and topology information to assist handoff between access points (APs). TASPR uses Topology-Aware Hand-Off Scheme (TAHOS) to find the most promising AP from a list of candidate APs. When TASPR decides to initiate a handoff procedure, it analyzes moving direction, received signal strength and topology information to filter out unnecessary scannings. Thus, TAHOS has less handoff latency compared to conventional handoff procedure and neighbor graph algorithm (NGA).

Enhancement of Return Routability Mechanism for Optimized-NEMO Using Correspondent Firewall

Network Mobility (NEMO) handles mobility of multiple nodes in an aggregate manner as a mobile network. The standard NEMO suffers from a number of limitations, such as inefficient routing and increased handoff latency. Most previous studies attempting to solve such problems have imposed an extra signaling load and/or modified the functionalities of the main entities. In this paper, we propose a more secure and lightweight route optimization (RO) mechanism based on exploiting the firewall in performing the RO services on behalf of the correspondent nodes (CNs). The proposed mechanism provides secure communications by making an authorized decision about the mobile router (MR) home of address, MR care of address, and the complete mobile network prefixes underneath the MR. In addition, it reduces the total signaling required for NEMO handoffs, especially when the number of mobile network nodes and/or CNs is increased. Moreover, our proposed mechanism can be easily deployed without modifying the mobility protocol stack of CNs. A thorough analytical model and network simulator (Ns-2) are used for evaluating the performance of the proposed mechanism compared with NEMO basic support protocol and state-of-the-art RO schemes. Numerical and simulation results demonstrate that our proposed mechanism outperforms other RO schemes in terms of handoff latency and total signaling load on wired and wireless links.

Enhancement of Return Routability Mechanism for Optimized-NEMO Using Correspondent Firewall

Network Mobility (NEMO) handles mobility of multiple nodes in an aggregate manner as a mobile network. The standard NEMO suffers from a number of limitations, such as inefficient routing and increased handoff latency. Most previous studies attempting to solve such problems have imposed an extra signaling load and/or modified the functionalities of the main entities. In this paper, we propose a more secure and lightweight route optimization (RO) mechanism based on exploiting the firewall in performing the RO services on behalf of the correspondent nodes (CNs). The proposed mechanism provides secure communications by making an authorized decision about the mobile router (MR) home of address, MR care of address, and the complete mobile network prefixes underneath the MR. In addition, it reduces the total signaling required for NEMO handoffs, especially when the number of mobile network nodes and/or CNs is increased. Moreover, our proposed mechanism can be easily deployed without modifying the mobility protocol stack of CNs. A thorough analytical model and network simulator (Ns-2) are used for evaluating the performance of the proposed mechanism compared with NEMO basic

Handoff Management protocols MIPV6 and HMIPV6 Comparative analysis in 4G wireless networks

With the increasing demands for new data and real-time services, wireless networks should support calls with different traffic characteristics and different Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. Instead of developing a new uniform standard for all wireless communications systems, 4G communication networks strive to seamlessly integrate various existing wireless communication technologies. IP has been recognized to be the de facto protocol for next-generation integrated wireless. In this paper we discuss different types of protocol for handoff management in 4G. Mobile IPv6, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 and their comparative study and analysis. Keywords: 4G networks, Handoff management, Handoff latency, HMIPV6, MIPV6

Impartial spectrum decision under interference temperature model in cognitive wireless mesh networks

Interference temperature model was proposed to relieve the problem of spectrum scarcity and spectrum underutilisation in the licensed bands by allowing simultaneous communication between licensees and cognitive unlicensed users in underlay spectrum sharing mode. Under interference temperature limits, a new metric called outage probability was proposed for the spectrum handoff decision in cognitive wireless mesh networks, to increase the spectrum efficiency and decrease the handoff latency. Furthermore, according to the pre-emptive resume priority (PRP) M/G/1 queuing theory, the handoff decision policy was applied to the probability-based spectrum decision strategy. Simulation results show that the proposed decision scheme reduces the outage probability and overall transmission time of secondary users, simultaneously guarantees the fairness in the channel utilisation, and further improves the network performance.

Train Control System for Efficient Track Usage and Reduce Road Traffic

Automatic Train Control (ATC) is the term for a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves some sort of speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. ATC systems continuously monitor all movements of the trains on lines and at stations and provide safe signaling. A large number of automatic functions support the high speeds possible and enabling the line and network resources to be utilized to maximum capacity. ATC use to schedule multiple trains between two stations with small meter gap between adjutant trains. So the railway department can run more train by using the same track without accident problem. Population explosion has resulted in a series of problems, such as traffic jam, environment pollution, and energy crisis. This project focus on channel estimation errors and the tradeoff between MIMO multiplexing gain and diversity gain in making handoff decisions. The handoff problem is formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), and the optimal handoff policy can be derived to minimize the handoff latency. Keywords- Green computing, railway communication, wireless local area network (LAN), train scheduling

A 6LoWPAN Sensor Node Mobility Scheme Based on Proxy Mobile IPv6

In this paper, we focus on a scheme that supports mobility for IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) sensor nodes. We define a protocol for 6LoWPAN mobile sensor node, named 6LoMSN, based on Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6). The conventional PMIPv6 standard supports only single-hop networks and cannot be applied to multihop-based 6LoWPAN. It does not support the mobility of 6LoMSNs and 6LoWPAN gateways, named 6LoGW, cannot detect the PAN attachment of the 6LoMSN. Therefore, we define the movement notification of a 6LoMSN in order to support its mobility in multihop-based 6LoWPAN environments. The attachment of 6LoMSNs reduces signaling costs over the wireless link by using router solicitation (RS) and router advertisement (RA) messages. Performance results show that our proposed scheme can minimize the total signaling costs and handoff latency. Additionally, we present the design and implementation of the 6LoMSN mobility based on PMIPv6 for a healthcare system. According to the experimental results, the 6LoMSN of the proposed PMIPv6-based 6LoWPAN can be expected to use more of the battery lifetime. We also verify that the 6LoMSN can maintain connectivity, even though it has the freedom of being able to move between PANs without a mobility protocol stack.

Artificial Neural Network Based Vertical Handoff Algorithm for Reducing Handoff Latency

One of the most challenging topics for next generation wireless networks is vertical handoff concept since several wireless technologies are assumed to cooperate. Plenty of parameters related to user preferences, application requirements, and network conditions, such as; data rate, service cost, network latency, speed of mobile, battery level, interference ratio and etc. must be considered in vertical handoff process along with traditional RSSI information. In this study, a new artificial neural network based handoff decision algorithm is proposed in order to reduce the handoff latency of smart terminal deployed in aforementioned wireless heterogeneous infrastructures. The prominent parameters data rate, monetary cost and RSSI information are taken as inputs of the developed vertical handoff decision system. Performance results of the proposed system are also compared with those of classical Multiple Attribute Decision Making method Simple Additive Weighting, and of some other artificial intelligence based algorithms. According to the results obtained, the proposed neural network based vertical handoff decision algorithm is able to determine whether a handoff is necessary or not properly, and selects the best candidate access network considering the abovementioned parameters. The results also show that, the neural network based algorithm developed significantly reduces the handoff latency while the number of handoffs, which is another vital performance metric, is still reasonable.

Evaluation of Parameters for Improving Handoff Performance in Obile Wimax Networks

Mobile WiMAX is the latest technology that promises broadband wireless access over long distance. In order to support mobility and continuous network connectivity in mobile WiMAX, it is necessary to provide handoff. Handoff is an essential process in wireless networks to guarantee continuous and effective services. This paper focuses on the analysis of the performance of the handoff process in Mobile WiMAX. This paper aims to find out the factors/parameters of the WiMAX module that affect handoff performance the most, such as handoff duration of less than 50 ms and mobility speed up to 120km/hour. Simulation results show that some of the parameters of WiMAX do not have any influence on handoff latency, while others have great impact towards achieving shorter handoff duration time. The results also show that handoff times could vary for different speeds of the Mobile Station (MS).

Optimized Seamless Handoff Latency in Wireless Networks

Optimized Seamless Handoff Latency in Wireless Networks

CAPWAP Status and Design Considerations for Seamless Roaming Support

Wireless LAN technologies have picked up momentum in the recent years due to their ease of deployment, cost and availability. The era of wireless LAN has also given rise to unique applications like VOIP, IPTV and unified messaging. However, these real-time applications are very sensitive to network and handoff latencies. To successfully support these applications, seamless roaming during the movement of mobile station has become crucial. Nowadays, centralized architecture models support roaming in WLANs. They have the ability to manage, control and troubleshoot large scale WLAN deployments. This model is managed by Control and Provision of Wireless Access Point protocol (CAPWAP). This paper covers the CAPWAP architectural solution along with its proposals that have emerged. Based on the literature survey conducted in this paper, we found that the proposed algorithms to reduce roaming latency in CAPWAP architecture do not support seamless roaming. Additionally, they are not sufficient during the initial period of the network. This paper also suggests important design consideration for mobility support in future centralized IEEE 802.11 networks.

Handoff management in communication-based train control networks using stream control transmission protocol and IEEE 802.11p WLANs

Communication-based train control (CBTC) network is an automated control network for railways that ensures the safe operation of rail vehicles using data communications. CBTC networks have stringent requirements for communication availability and latency. Wireless local area network (WLAN) is a popular choice in CBTC networks due to the available commercial-off-the-shelf WLAN equipments. However, handoffs in WLANs may result in communication interruption and long latency in WLANs-based CBTC networks. In this article, we propose a handoff management scheme for CBTC networks using stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) and IEEE 802.11p WLANs to provide high communication availability and low latency in CBTC networks. We formulate the handoff decision problem as a stochastic Semi-Markov Decision Process (SMDP) with the objectives of minimizing the handoff latency and maximizing the SCTP throughput. Simulation results are presented to show that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the handoff performance in CBTC networks.