A policy oriented multi-interface selection framework for mobile IPv6 using the ID/Locator Split concepts in the Next Generation Wireless Networks

Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWNs) will be the convergence of fixed and mobile networking technologies, e.g., Ethernet, Wireless LAN, 2G/3G/4G, etc. This united ubiquitous network will consist of billions of mobile devices, each with multiple networking interfaces. These interfaces may belong to a set of diverse link layer technologies. Internet Protocol (IP) shall potentially be used as the inter-networking protocol to bridge this diversity in the underlying wireless link-layer similar to the present wired Internet architecture. However, the traditional IP was not designed for wireless environments and, hence, faces several issues in mobility, multihoming, user path selection, etc. The basis of most of these issues lies in the problem of contextual overloading of IP addresses to serve as both locators and identifiers. The ID/Locator Split concept is a well-known approach to overcome this problem. Mobile IPv6 can be considered as an example of an ID/Locator Split mechanism in which the home address is used as the identity of the mobile node and its care-of-addresses (CoAs) are used as locators. Cellular networking standards organizations, e.g., the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), have adopted the Mobile IP concept for next generation cellular networks to maintain the mobility in an all-IP network framework. Mobile IPv6 and its optimizations can achieve full mobility and deployability. Currently, Mobile IPv6 allows features such as multiple CoA registrations and flow binding options. Apart from mobility, these extensions provide a solution for user-multihoming. However, there is no standard mechanism to select the proper interfaces or to map CoAs underneath. In this paper, we propose a policy-based QoS framework for users to choose the best N interfaces that suit the requirements of their specific applications.