Performance evaluation of TCP handoffs over mobile IP connections

It is well known that TCP protocol behaves quiet loosely in mobile wireless environments. In fact, when a mobile host moves from one IP domain to another it has to get a new IP address in the new domain. This process of getting a new IP address should be automatic and fast enough in order to keep active any running TCP session without loosing the quality of service provided to the user. Mobile IP has been developed to manage the user mobility in mobile wireless networks. However, this protocol is not well suited to support a TCP handoffs during the node's handover process which will help in keeping active any running TCP sessions. In this paper, we have designed a new management architecture which will ensure the continuity of any TCP connection when a mobile host executes a handover. In order to validate our architecture, we have evaluated its performance by adopting an analytical model.