Achieving efficient network resources utilization in bicasting Proxy Mobile IPv6

In this paper, we study bicasting schemes for PMIPv6 whose purpose is to achieve seamless handovers by minimizing packet loss and handover delay during a handover in a PMIPv6 domain. Bicasting schemes are able to alleviate packet loss during a handover at the expense of utilization of a significant amount of backhaul bandwidth since packets are duplicated to the current and candidate point of attachment during the bicasting period. We therefore propose an enhanced bicasting scheme for PMIPv6 that will not only lower handover delay and packet loss but also promote an efficient utilization of the backhaul bandwidth and network elements' buffer space required as a mobile node changes its point of attachment. The proposed solution uses the signal strength behavior to make decisions on when to start and stop bicasting such that the bicasting operation is executed in a timely and accurate manner to achieve the better network resources utilization. The results which were obtained from the evaluation carried out using the Network Simulator 2 (ns-2) indeed show that the proposed solution surpasses the currently existing bicasting solutions for PMIPv6.