SR-DMM: A SDN-Based DMM Solution For Future Mobile Networks

 The exponential growth in the number of mobile subscribers, as well as the data traffic generated by them is showing a major challenge in wireless Internet. Existing mobile networks are starting to be insufficient in meeting this demand, in part due to their inflexible and expensive equipment as well as complex and non-agile control plane. In this context, in which the heterogeneity on the access is even more extended, the mobility support becomes more crucial. Thus, the mobility management mechanisms need to evolve to fit with the cutting-edge technologies that are going to rule next generation mobile networks. A key enabler to 5G will be SDN (Software-Defined Networking), which brings a natural solution to decouple the network control plane from the data plane, allowing higher flexibility and programmability to the network. Based on SDN and following the recommendations of the DMM (Distributed Mobility Management) approach, this article presents the SR-DMM solution (SDN Redirection DMM), a mobility management mechanism that takes full advantages of the softwarization capabilities of the network. This proposal avoids the use of IP-IP tunnels and it adds the dynamic flow management capability provided by SDN. In order to analyse the performance of SR-DMM, an analytical model is developed to compare it with NB-DMM (Network-based DMM), one of the main DMM solutions. Additionally, SR-DMM performance is also evaluated with an experimental testbed. The results allow to measure the handover latency in real scenarios and numerical investigations, also shows that SR-DMM achieves better efficiency in terms of signalling and routing cost than NB-DMM solution.