PMIPv6-HC: Handover Mechanism for Reducing Handover Delay and Packet Loss in NGWN

Next generation wireless networks will consist of interworking heterogeneous wireless access technologies that will be integrated over an IP-based infrastructure to provide network access ubiquity. In such a networking environment mobility particularly vertical handover between the heterogeneous wireless networks has to be supported. However, it is challenging to coordinate vertical handover within this diverse environment to ensure better handover performance in terms of handover delay and packet loss. Consequently, this paper proposes the idea of employing a handover coordinator between the heterogeneous networks that are affected in the handover process. The main idea is that dynamically coordinating handover procedures ahead of time among the affected networks will enhance overall handover performance. That is, coordinated handover procedures will be easy to handle proactively thus mitigating delays and packet loss during the actual handover period. The proposed handover coordinator utilizes a network-based mobility management protocol as a basis to effectively and efficiently handle vertical handovers in a localized heterogeneous wireless environment. Thus, the resulting network-based handover mechanism improves performance particularly in terms of ensuring that the handover between the heterogeneous wireless networks is transparent to active connections during the handover period. Simulation results show that handover coordination in network-based mobility managed heterogeneous wireless networks further reduces handover delay and packet loss hence improving handover performance.