IEEE 802.21-enabled Entity Title Architecture for handover optimization

The explosion of demanding on-line services, such as video, is increasingly stressing the Internet architecture, requiring new solutions to support future usage scenarios. New Future Internet approaches targeting Information Centric Networking, such as the Entity Title Architecture (ETArch), provide new optimizations for these scenarios, using novel mechanisms such as Software Defined Networking (SDN). However, these are not targeted to address another growing Internet challenge reflecting the increase in multi-technology wireless mobile access. In this work, we empowered ETArch with Media-Independent mechanisms from the IEEE 802.21 standard, optimizing content delivery in wireless mobile scenarios. The resulting framework was implemented in a physical testbed of the OFELIA project, with results showing that the defined mechanisms supported seamless handover avoiding packet loss at a reduced overhead cost, when compared with the base ETArch. Moreover, the media-independent nature of these enhancements allows the framework to be deployed in different access technologies, in a flexible way.