Long random wait times for getting a care-of address are a danger to mobile multimedia

To deploy real-time services to mobile Internet users, providing low latency handover is an important issue. If a handover is performed across IP subnets, the mobile node generally needs to acquire a new care-of IP address to avoid losing ongoing connections. This paper describes existing alternatives to acquire a care-of address on a visited subnet, and evaluates the related protocols with respect to their effect on the handover latency. We have found that these protocols involve random wait times that can lead to delays in the order of seconds, even when performing a handover between high speed wireless networks. To decrease these delays, we suggest that some of the current recommendations and requirements should be changed in order to support low latency handover.