Scalable QoS provisioning for mobile networks using wireless sensors

In the past few years support for mobility has increased to a large extent. Mobile IP enables nodes to move from one network to the other while maintaining the same IP address. Minimal packet loss during handoff is a requirement for provisioning QoS for real-time applications. However, loss of packets during handoff and the best effort service offered by the Internet degrades the quality of applications such as voice and video. High-speed mobility such as those in trains and vehicles further deteriorates the services of such time critical applications. In this paper, the authors propose a new handoff technique based on location tracking by wireless sensor networks. Networks of such sensors perform movement detection of mobile nodes in a particular direction and inform the mobility agent to which the mobile node is attached. This agent looks up the new mobility agent determination table and informs the new agent to which the node is moving. Based on entries in the proposed IP-QoS mapping table, old mobility agent also informs the new agent about the mobile nodes traffic characteristics so it can make reservations in advance. Numerical analysis shows that packet loss during handoff when compared to traditional mobile IP is reduced by as high as 93% and agent utilization increases by 96% at high speeds.