IP-based handover management over IP-based handover management over heterogeneous wireless networks

Mobile users are facing the fact that many heterogenous radio access technologies coexist, ranging from wireless LANs to cellular systems. No technology has emerged as a common and universal solution which makes the current trends today toward the design of all-IP wireless networks, where radio cells are under the control of IP access routers for signalling and data transmission. In such networks, an IP-device with multiple radio interfaces or software radio can roam between different radio networks regardless the heterogeneity of their radio access technologies. The design of an all-IP wireless network requires an efficient and flexible handover management. A major issue in handover control is reducing data losses and avoiding additional end to end transmission delays. In this paper we propose mechanisms to handle soft-handover management in the IP layer which can coexist with mobile IPv6 and allow efficient micro mobility management.