IEEE802.21 OPTIMIZED HANDOVER DELAY FOR PROXY MOBILE IPV6

Next generation wireless networks are envisaged to be a combination of different but complementary access technologies. Interworking of these heterogeneous wireless networks will provide ubiquitous access to roaming network users. Thus, a seamless mobility mechanism with low handover delay to maintain active communication flows during handover across these networks is required. Several solutions, mainly host-based localized mobility management schemes, have been widely proposed to reduce handover delay in heterogeneous wireless networks. However, the handover delay remains high and unacceptable for delay-sensitive services. Moreover, host-based mobility management schemes involve the mobile node in mobility-related signaling hence effectively increasing the handover delay. This paper analyzes the reduction of handover delay in a network-based localized mobility management framework assisted by IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover services. It compares the handover signaling procedures with host-based localized Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6), with network-based Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6), and with PMIPv6 assisted by IEEE 802.21 to show how much handover delay reduction can be achieved.