Christian Makaya

An Analytical Framework for Performance Evaluation of IPv6-Based mobility Management Protocols

Mobility management with provision of seamless handover is crucial for an efficient support of global roaming of mobile nodes (MNs) in next-generation wireless networks (NGWN). Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) and its extensions were proposed by IETF for IP layer mobility management. However, performance of IPv6-based mobility management schemes is highly dependent on traffic characteristics and user mobility models. Consequently, it is important to assess this performance in-depth through those two factors. The performance of IPv6-based mobility management schemes is usually evaluated through simulations. This paper proposes an analytical framework to evaluate the performance of IPv6-based mobility management protocols. This proposal does not aim to advocate which is better but rather to study the effects of various network parameters on the performance of these protocols to enlighten decision-making. The effect of system parameters, such as subnet residence time, packet arrival rate and wireless link delay, is investigated for performance evaluation with respect to various metrics like signaling overhead cost, handoff latency and packet loss. Numerical results show that there is a trade-off between performance metrics and network parameters.

An Architecture for Seamless Mobility Support in IP-Based Next-Generation Wireless Networks

Recent technological innovations allow mobile devices to be equipped with multiple wireless interfaces. Moreover, the trend in fourth-generation or next-generation wireless networks (4G/NGWNs) is the coexistence of diverse but complementary architectures and wireless access technologies. In this context, an appropriate mobility management scheme, as well as the integration and interworking of existing wireless systems, is crucial. Several proposals for solving these issues are available in the literature. However, these proposals cannot guarantee seamless roaming and service continuity. This paper proposes a novel architecture called integrated intersystem architecture (IISA), which is based on the third-generation partnership project/third-generation partnership project 2 requirements that enables the integration and interworking of current wireless systems, and investigates mobility management issues. An efficient handoff protocol based on localized mobility management, access networks discovery, and fast handoff concepts called handoff protocol for integrated networks (HPINs) is proposed. It alleviates service disruption during handoff in IPv6-based heterogeneous wireless environments. Numerical results show that HPIN performs better in terms of signaling cost, handoff latency, handoff-blocking probability, and packet loss compared to existing schemes.

An Interworking Architecture for Heterogeneous IP Wireless Networks

A major trend in next generation or 4G wireless networks (NGWN/4G) is the coexistence of diverse but complementary architectures and wireless access technologies. In this context, an appropriate integration and interworking of existing wireless systems are crucial. Interworking architectures have been proposed for 3G cellular networks and wireless local area networks (WLAN) by both third generation wireless initiatives, 3GPP and 3GPP2. However, proposed interworking architectures still to be hindered by some drawbacks, the most significant being the absence of quality of service (QoS) guarantee and seamless roaming. This paper proposes a novel architecture, called Integrated InterSystem Architecture (USA), based on 3GPP/3GPP2 proposal, which enables the integration and interworking of various wireless networks and hide their heterogeneities from each other. The USA architecture aims at providing guaranteed seamless roaming and service continuity across different access networks. Numerical results show that USA with its supported handoff management scheme provides better performance than existing interworking architectures when they use traditional IPv6-based handoff management schemes.

Adaptive handoff scheme for heterogeneous IP wireless networks

Recent technological advances allow mobile devices to be equipped with multiple wireless interfaces. Moreover, the coexistence of diverse but complementary architectures and wireless access technologies is one of the major trends in 4G or next-generation wireless networks (4G/NGWN). In this context, the selection of an appropriate interface to ensure that a mobile node (MN) remains connected to the network is a challenging issue for seamless roaming. Furthermore, mobility management as well as the integration and interworking of existing wireless systems are a complex task due to their specific characteristics. This paper proposes an efficient handoff protocol, called Handoff Protocol for Integrated Networks (HPIN), which alleviates services disruption during handoff in 4G/NGWN. HPIN is based on a novel handoff decision function and carries out localized mobility, fast handoff and access networks discovery. Performance evaluation based on numerical results shows that the proposed protocol performs better than existing schemes.

Enhanced fast handoff scheme for heterogeneous wireless networks

Mobility management, integration and interworking of existing wireless systems are important factors to obtain seamless roaming and services continuity in next generation or 4G wireless networks (NGWN/4G). Although, several IPv6-based mobility protocols as well as interworking architectures have been proposed in the literature, they cannot guarantee seamless roaming, especially for real-time applications. Moreover, mobility management protocols are designed for specific needs, for example, the purpose of IPv6-based mobility schemes consists of managing users roaming while ignoring access network discovery. This paper proposes an efficient handoff protocol, called enhanced Handoff Protocol for Integrated Networks (eHPIN), which carries out localized mobility management, fast handoff, and access network discovery. It alleviates services disruption during roaming in heterogeneous IP-based wireless environments. Performance evaluation results show that eHPIN provides significant gain with respect to signaling traffic overhead cost, handoff latency, packet delivery cost, handoff failure and packet loss compared with existing IPv6-based mobility schemes.

Efficient Handoff Scheme for Heterogeneous IPv6-based Wireless Networks

Mobility management, with provision of seamless handoff and quality of service (QoS) guarantees, is one of the key issues in next generation or 4G wireless networks (NGWN/4G). Current trends in communication networks evolution are directed towards an all-IP principles in order to hide heterogeneities and to achieve convergence of various access networks. Several IPv6-based mobility management schemes have been proposed for service continuity in NGWN/4G. However, these schemes have some well-known disadvantages such as signaling traffic overhead, high packet loss and high handoff latency, thereby causing a user-perceptible deterioration of real-time applications. This paper proposes an efficient handoff protocol for NGWN/4G, called handoff protocol for integrated networks (HPIN), that alleviates service disruption during handoff. HPIN is a one suite protocol that performs local mobility management, fast handoff, context transfer and access network discovery. Performance evaluation based on numerical results shows that the proposed scheme performs better than existing schemes.

Handoff Protocol for Heterogeneous All-IP-based Wireless Networks

Next generation wireless networks (NGWN) or 4G are envisioned to be a combination of different architectures and wireless technologies. This brings several design and deployment challenges, such as mobility management, quality of service (QoS) provision and networks interworking. Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) and its extensions, like HMIPv6 and FMIPv6, have been proposed for IP layer mobility management in NGWN. However, these protocols are hindered by several shortcomings; they fail to ensure seamless communications and support of real-time applications. This paper proposes a new and efficient mobility management protocol namely, handoff protocol for integrated networks (HPIN), based on score function, fast handover and anticipated resources reservation principles, to alleviate service disruption during users roaming by allowing selection of the best available network. The implementation of HPIN has been subject to extensive tests and results obtained show its benefit in terms of QoS than traditional and existing handoff protocols

Reliable Integrated Architecture for Heterogeneous Mobile and Wireless Networks

The major trend in next-generation or 4G wireless networks (NGWN/4G) is the coexistence of diverse but complementary architectures and wireless access technologies. In this context, an appropriate integration and interworking of existing wireless networks are crucial to allow seamless roaming across those networks. Several integrated architectures have been proposed for 3G cellular networks and wireless local area networks (WLANs) by both third generation wireless initiatives, 3GPP and 3GPP2. However, the proposed architectures have several drawbacks, the most significant being the absence of quality of service (QoS) guarantees, seamless roaming and service continuity. This paper proposes a novel architecture, called Integrated InterSystem Architecture (IISA), which enables the integration and interworking of various wireless networks and hide their heterogeneities from one another. The IISA architecture aims provisioning of guaranteed seamless roaming and service continuity across different access networks. Performance evaluation shows that IISA together with the proposed handoff management scheme provide significant gains than existing interworking architectures and mobility management protocols.

IP-Based Fast Handoff Scheme for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Among the key issues of next-generation wireless networks (NGWN), mobility management is one of the most crucial. In fact, provision of seamless roaming and services continuity is required for multimedia applications and particularly in presence of heterogeneous wireless environments. Although several IP-based mobility protocols have been proposed in the literature, they are not able to guarantee seamless roaming, especially for real-time applications. This paper proposes an efficient handoff protocol, called enhanced handoff protocol for integrated networks (eHPIN). This protocol carries out localized mobility management, fast or anticipated handoff, and access network discovery in order to alleviates services disruption during roaming in heterogeneous IPv6-based wireless environments. Simulation results show benefits of eHPIN in term of signaling traffic overhead cost, end-to-end throughput, handoff latency and packet loss compared to existing IPv6-based mobility management protocols.