Enhanced forwarding from the previous care-of address (EFWD) for fast handovers in mobile IPv6

We introduce enhanced forwarding from the previous care-of address (EFWD) for fast handovers in mobile IPv6. EFWD enables a mobile node to directly control a bi-directional tunnel that is used to redirect data from the previous subnet´s access router to new subnet´s access router. As a result, data loss during a handover can be prevented. EFWD also reduces handover latency by expediting the mobile node´s movement detection and new subnet´s access router discovery, and by eliminating time to acquire a new care-of address. Main benefit of EFWD is the removal of link layer pre-triggers that are required by fast mobile IPv6 and generally infeasible for wireless technologies other than cellular systems. Empirical results indicate that performance of EFWD is nearly optimal as fast mobile IPv6, which incurs 30-40 msec handover latency with 3-4 lost UDP packets.