Efficient IPv6 neighbor discovery scheme for wireless LAN mesh networks

Due to data forwarding and path selection characteristics based on MAC address, WLAN mesh networks requires additional operations to achieve end-to-end data delivery using IPv6 address. IPv6 neighbor discovery operation in WLAN mesh networks needs repeated all-node broadcasting and this gives rise to a big burden in the entire mesh networks. In this paper, we propose the efficient IPv6 neighbor discovery method in multi-hop WLAN mesh networks. The proposed scheme utilizes the pre-configured proxy neighbor table. It has been shown from simulation experiments that the control overhead and communication setup latency can be significantly reduced using the proposed proxy mechanism.