Tracking agent based paging for wireless LANs

We design a protocol for paging (tracking agent based paging or TAP) IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN hosts. Mobile nodes in IEEE 802.11 BSS constitute a layer-2 paging area. The tracking agent (TA) is in charge of the paging state, and TA continuously updates the paging state after each layer-2 handoff. Paging on the wireless link is done by extended beacons, and does not involve periodic layer-3 messages. Signaling in TAP is based on IEEE´s IAPP (inter-access point protocol) with minor extensions. We evaluate the performance of TAP and show that TAP achieves superior power savings.