MEHROM: Micromobility support with Efficient Handoff and Route Optimization Mechanisms

The combination of Mobile IP with frequent handovers results in high handoff latencies and control overhead in the core network. Micromobility protocols like Cellular IP, Hawaii and MIPv4 Regional Registration were developed to avoid these problems, supporting local mobility within one IP domain. This paper proposes the MEHROM (Micromobility support with Efficient Handoff and Route Optimization Mechanisms) handoff scheme, which consists of two phases. During the first phase, an efficient handoff is performed, aiming to reduce the handoff latency and packet loss. The second phase guarantees the set up of an optimal path between the current access router and the domain gateway. During handoff, a router in the access network detects whether it has the function of cross-over node and whether the second phase must be executed. In contrast to other micromobility protocols, no assumptions about the access network topology are made, control traffic is concentrated near the involved access routers, while low packet loss and optimal paths are achieved.