IEEE 802.11-Based Mobile IP Fast Handoff Latency Analysis

Mobile IP is a solution for mobility support in the global Internet. However, it suffers from long handoff delay. Many solutions have been proposed to reduce the handoff delay of Mobile IP. Among these solutions, Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6) and Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) are actively developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force for future IPv6 networks. A majority of the research on performance analysis of Mobile IP handoff latency either adopts a simulation approach or is based on experimental testbeds. This paper focuses on the analytical modeling of handoff latency for the two Mobile IPv6 fast handoff protocols, FMIPv6 and HMIPv6, using IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area networks as the wireless access networks. Different from other previously proposed analytical models for handoff latency analysis, our model considers comprehensive factors from both link layer and network layer which influence the Mobile IP handoff delay. Individual analytical models for each of these factors affecting the handoff latency are developed. The outcome of this research is the probability distribution of the handoff latency occurring within a certain range based on the offered traffic load and network conditions.