Impact of Cross-Layer Adaptations of Mobile IP on IEEE 802.11 Networks on Video Streaming

The OSI network layer model provides a strictly separated stacked architecture to abstract the behavior of one layer from the other. Although this model has a lot of advantages, it also makes it easy to lose the bigger picture. In this paper, the authors describe the advantages that can be made by cross-layering the link layer and networking layer to optimize handovers. The performance gain of these cross-layer adaptations will be analyzed using a simulation scenario and compared to the results from a real-life video streaming test. The authors will show that the performance gain in network parameters cannot be directly mapped on the gain of the video quality.