PROFITIS: architecture for location-based vertical handovers supporting real-time applications

Even though numerous proposals have been made for mobility management schemes in heterogeneous wireless IP networks, no single solution has emerged that is capable of supporting seamless and low latency handovers required to satisfy the stringent delay requirements of real-time multimedia applications. In this paper, we present a location-based mobility management architecture for realtime applications in a heterogeneous network environment. Handover latency is minimised by integrating optimised application layer mobility management signalling using the session initiation protocol (SIP) with location-based information of nearby access points (APs). A newly defined access point location protocol (APLP) is used to disseminate geospatial information and network parameters associated with various APs to location-aware mobile devices that use this information to construct a virtual map of the APs. An intelligent decision engine (DE) implemented in the mobile node (MN) combines the information provided by APLP with knowledge of the user´s mobility pattern and policy preferences to anticipate handovers