Mobility Protocols and Handover Optimization: Design, Evaluation and Application

Chapter 7Optimization with Multilayer Mobility Protocols

In this chapter, we describe our proposed multilayer mobility optimization techniques that use triggers from the data link layer (e.g., layer 2) and the application layer and optimize several handoff operations, namely address configuration, layer 3 binding update, and media traversal. During the discovery process, the data link layer trigger specifies the mobile's movement type based on the layer 2 beacon id and the layer 3 subnet prefix or domain id. Similarly, the application layer trigger specifies the type of application, such as a TCP-based (e.g., ftp) or RTP-based (e.g., VoIP) application, on the mobile to trigger the right type of mobility protocol.

The proposed mechanism optimizes handoff delay and reduces packet loss by way of limiting the number of signaling update messages during the mobile's movement within a domain and reduces the end-to-end transport delay for the media by use of a direct binding update for real-time applications. This mechanism uses a policy-based approach based on the mobile's movement pattern and the application, and decides on the mobility protocol that is most appropriate.

7.1 Summary of Key Contributions and Indicative Results

The network layer mobility protocol, application layer mobility protocol, and local mobility protocols can operate independently without interacting with each other. However, each of these mobility protocols has its own pros and cons. For example, a network ...