IPv6-Based Architecture for Fast and Cost-Effective Micro-Mobility Management

To improve mobility management in all IPv6-based wireless networks, optimisation work on Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is being standardised. The Hierarchical MIPv6 (HMIPv6) and the Fast Handovers for MIPv6 (FMIPv6) have emerged as the two most promising protocols. However, the optimal integration of both schemes, together with mobility-aware QoS (quality of service) management, remains an open research issue. Furthermore, the current standard IPv6 address auto-configuration is not optimised for mobility contexts and thus is the bottleneck to real fast handoffs. In addition, out-of-order packets are generated at a mobile host when both FMIPv6 and HMIPv6 are applied jointly, degrading the QoS of ongoing sessions. To solve these problems, we propose IPv6-based micro-mobility architecture, where HMIPv6 and FMIPv6 are enhanced effectively and integrated efficiently. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed architecture is the most cost-effective solution among three schemes based on the combination of HMIPv6 and FMIPv6 and can achieve faster handoffs compared with FMIPv6.