Investigation of handover techniques in a IPv6 mobile network

Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is a proposed mobility standard for Next Generation Wireless Access Networks that allows mobile nodes to stay reachable while moving around in a IPv6 internet environment. The need for MIPv6 exists because a mobile cannot maintain the previously link when changing location and IP address. This paper describes MIPv6 as simulated, using the Omnett++ Network Simulator Framework and implemented on a Linux IPv6 test bed. This was done to test handover latency, overhead added by the MIPv6 extensions and packet latency. These results are also used to compare the difference between the simulation results and the actual Linux test bed performance. The developed test setup was also used to implement Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6), to enhance the MIPv6 protocol, decreasing handover latency and enabling real-time IPv6 applications such as video streaming.