Improved handover performance in wireless mobile IPv6

When a mobile station using IEEE 802.11b for wireless connection moves from the area serviced by an Access Point on one wireless network to the area serviced by an Access Point on another network, there is a break in connectivity at the data-link layer. This is made worse because there is also a break in connectivity due to the need for the mobile station to find a new router and to update the address binding on the correspondent nodes and home agent. This article discusses measurements of this disruption and the factors that contribute to it and then discusses methods of reducing the interruption using information from the data-link layer to facilitate the reconnection at the network layer. There is also brief discussion of methods to reduce the data-link layer handover delay.