Network Assisted Mobility Support for 6LoWPAN

This paper presents a network-assisted mobility support scheme for 6L0WPAN nodes, which enables multi-hop communication between the Gateway (GW) and the mobile 6L0WPAN devices (MNs), with minimum mobility related signaling at the MN´s end as compared to conventional mobility related protocols like MIPv6. The scheme provides mobility support to the MNs with the help of low cost static 6L0WPAN devices (SNs) which can be deployed in large numbers. In order to reduce the handover latency, the MN in the proposed scheme is assigned a fixed address which remains unchanged during its course of movement within the network. Moreover the scheme aims to reduce packets loss of the MN by predicting its future location and having a provision of buffering its packet at SNs when needed. The signaling overhead consumption needed to support a MN is determined through analytical modeling.