Mobility management solutions for IP networks

A rapid growth of IP-based networks and services has created a vast collection of resources and functionalities available to users by means of a uniform method of access offered by the IP protocol. At the same time, advances in the design of mobile electronic devices allowed them to reach a utility level comparable to desktop computers, while still retaining their mobility advantage. Unfortunately, the base IP protocol does not perform very well in mobile environments, due to lack of handover support and higher layer mobility management mechanisms. In this paper, we present an overview of the most popular and promising methods of handling mobility in IP networks, covering ISO-OSI layers 2+, 3, as well as layer 3+ and layers 4 and 7 of mobility solutions, together with newly proposed methods.