Performance of TCP and UDP during mobile IP handoffs in single-agent subnetworks

In this paper we analyse the performance of mobile IP (MIP) handoffs with respect to the three available MIP movement detection methods, namely lazy cell switching, prefix matching and eager cell switching. The network scenario considered involves single-agent subnetworks and mobile nodes (MNs) that do not have the capability to contemporarily participate in multiple networks (e.g. IEEE802.11). This analysis experimentally considers transmission control protocol (TCP) communications over MIP, but the results can also be used to draw conclusions on the performance of user datagram protocol (UDP) communications. Since MNs are expected to perform multiple handoffs within the lifetime of a communication, it is important to analyse the impact of a handoff on the overall communication. It is shown that the disruption caused by the MIP handoff may result in an unsatisfactory service for both TCP and UDP applications. It is identified that the combination of the inherent characteristics of TCP and MIP handoffs may result in a service disruption interval of more than ten seconds. It is also shown that UDP communications may suffer a service disruption interval up to 6 seconds