A Handover Control of Mobile Nodes with IP Mobility in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Assuming all-IP wireless networks in the next generation, seamless vertical handover mechanism in IP mobility satisfying QoS requirements for variety such as user policies, dynamic network status, and a device type of a mobile node is required. In this paper, we propose a handover control mechanism coordinated with IP mobility architecture and design it as a middleware which works in a mobile node independently from IP mobility architecture. The prototype system integrates dynamic information of geographic location of the mobile node and its link layer information. It also decides the suitable network interface from them and gives its decision result to IP mobility architecture. We installed this software in a mobile client of a content delivery system for tourism and demonstrated it at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima as a field trial. Through this trial, we verified the functions of the developed software and discussed the problems as a middleware solution.