Mechanisms and hierarchical topology for fast handover in wireless IP networks

We propose a mechanism to perform fast handover in IP-based wireless networks for real-time applications such as Internet telephony and videoconferencing. Our proposal is designed to reestablish the communication session traffic flow quickly and to minimize the service disruption delay that occurs during mobile IP handover. In this scheme, we propose two different mechanisms to handle micromobility and inter-subdomain mobility, respectively. Micromobility handover handles movements within the same subdomain. Inter-subdomain handover supports handovers between two adjacent subdomains. The reason for having several subdomains is to deploy the network over a wider area to keep the mobile user in the same network for as long as possible. The novelty of the scheme is to retransmit the buffered packets during micromobility handover and to use multicasting to reestablish traffic flow during inter-subdomain movement. The entire scheme is performed within a hierarchical topology based on next-generation IP networks. We analyze both micromobility and inter-subdomain mobility handovers, and display simulation results for both voice and video over IP for micromobility handover.