An Improved Fast Handover Algorithm Based on the Enhanced Access Router (EAR-FMIPv6)

IETF proposed MIPv6 and FMIPv6 for mobile node´s mobility. The FMIPv6 reduces the handover latency compared with that of MIPv6, however FMIPv6 needs a lot of signaling processes in order to reduce latency time, and it obviously increases the power consumption which can be a critical problem for mobile nodes using the battery. Therefore, we propose a new algorithm based on the enhanced Access Router. This modified access router performs the handover process instead of mobile node. The Access Router configures the mobile node´s CoA and sends the Binding Update message in advance to decrease the DAD time and the binding update delay, then the Mobile Node´s power consumption is also decreased. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol through both mathematical analysis and OPNET simulation. The analytical and simulation results show that our protocol minimizes not only total handover latency time but also Mobile Node´s power consumption because of the mobile node´s reduced function.