A Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of PMIPv6 over IP-Based Cellular Networks

Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6), a network-based local mobility management solution, is being actively discussed and standardized by IETF recently. Compared with the host-based mobility protocols such as mobile IPv6, PMIPv6 separates mobile node from the involvement of handover procedure and promises easier deployment and better handover performance. The system performance analysis of PMIPv6 is significant to its design and deployment. However, current related work is either restricted to a single performance metric or not considered in a realistic network environment. In this paper, we propose an analytical framework based on IP-based cellular networks. Based on the framework, we investigate the performance of PMIPv6 with respect to various metrics, including signaling cost, handover delay and packet loss, and compare it with host-based mobility management protocols, such as Mobile IPv6, FMIPv6 and HMIPv6. The simulation results demonstrate the salient performance of PMIPv6.