A looping problem in the tree-based mobility management for mobile IP supported ad hoc networks

A loop can take place in the process of managing tree topology for mobility management of mobile nodes in infrastructure-based mobile ad hoc networks. The formation of a loop degrades an effective bandwidth of the wireless network by passing an identical message repeatedly within the same loop. Therefore, the loop should be resolved to revert the system back to the normal state. In this paper, we propose a simple and novel mechanism that detects and resolves a loop quickly by tracking the depth of trees. The mobility management approach that employs the loop resolution method is evaluated comparatively with the original tree-based one and the hybrid one. It is shown that the proposed approach far outperforms the other approaches, and it is robust against the rapid changes in network topology.