IEEE 802.21-Assisted Cross-Layer Design and PMIPv6 Mobility Management Framework for Next Generation Wireless Networks

Next generation wireless networks are envisaged to be an integration of heterogeneous but complementary wireless access networks. The inter-networking of these heterogeneous wireless networks with the Internet will provide ubiquitous access to roaming network users. However, a seamless handover mechanism with negligible handover delay is required to maintain active connections during roaming across these networks. Several solutions, mainly involving host-based localized mobility management schemes, have been widely proposed to reduce handover delay among heterogeneous wireless networks. However, the handover delay remains high and unacceptable for delay-sensitive services such as real-time and multimedia applications. Moreover, these applications will be very common in next generation wireless networks. Unfortunately, these widely proposed host-based localized mobility management schemes involve the mobile node in mobility-related signalling hence effectively increasing the handover delay. Furthermore, these schemes do not properly address the advanced handover scenarios envisaged in future wireless networks. This paper, therefore, proposes a mobility management framework utilizing cross-layer design, the IEEE 802.21 future standard, and the recently emerged network-based localized mobility management scheme, Proxy Mobile IPv6, to further reduce handover delay.