Handoff support for mobility in future wireless MPLS networks: a proposal and analysis

In this paper, we propose a practical approach to address how micro-mobility can be provided in an efficient way with continuous quality of service (QoS) support. Our proposal is based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) and mobile IP and relies on two-level hierarchy architecture. It supports two protocol variants. First, the fast handoff process, which anticipates the LSP procedure setup with an adjacent neighbor subnet that a mobile node (MN) is likely to visit, is provided to reduce service disruption. Second, a new mechanism based on a master forwarding chain concept is proposed to track efficiently the host mobility within a domain. Our concept can significantly reduce the total signaling cost and provide low handoff latency. This can be achieved by dynamically controlling the number of registration updates with the root of the domain according to a cost comparison. Analytical models are developed and simulations are conducted to justify the benefits of our proposed mechanisms