A multiple home agent deployment scheme to enhance service availability for MIPv6

In MIPv6, the home agent (HA) is the key entity to ensure a mobile node¿s (MN) reachability. A single HA on the home link will become a performance bottleneck and single point of failure. This paper proposes a Multiple HA Deployment Scheme (MHADS) comprising a dynamic load balancing mechanism based on active overloading prevention and a MN-unaware fault-tolerance mechanism. The results of simulation show that, MHADS can be more efficient in enhancing service availability and improving system performance as compared with the previous mechanisms, when the home link is under different load situations as well as in the presence of HA failure.