Lightweight Handover Control Function Protocol FOR Mobile Internet Protocol Version 6

Abstract

Mobile IP allows a mobile node to maintain a continuous connectivity to the Internet when moving from one access point to another. However, due to the link switching delay and to the Mobile IP handover operations, packets designated to mobile nodes can be delayed or lost during the handover period. This research presents a new control function called Lightweight Handover Control Function (L-HCF) in order to improve the handover performance in the context of Mobile IPv6 over wireless networks. The L-HCF functionality allows a router to decide which IP address that the mobile node is associated when movement is needed, by using available IP addresses in its database if the movement operation in side domain or by exchange messages between other routers if the movement alter domain. The mobile node can thus use this address without the procedure of Duplicate Address Detection. The function is implemented in analytical model and simulated in Opnet simulation, the result shows that, the control function provide low latency, less packet loss compared to the standard function of the mobile IPv6.