Comparative Handover Performance Analysis of MIPv6 and PMIPv6 in LEO Satellite Networks

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite networks have been one trend for next-generation all-IP wireless networks with the development of satellite technology. Mobility management is one of the most challenging research topics for enabling mobility service in LEO satellite networks. Taking the highly topological dynamics characteristic of LEO satellite networks into consideration, we develop a mobility model, a dynamic network model and a packet transportation model to evaluate the handover performance of Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) and Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6). Based on these models, MIPv6 and PMIPv6 are then analyzed and compared in terms of handover latency, handover blocking probability and packet loss. The numerical results indicate that the performance of MIPv6 and PMIPv6 is affected by link condition, dynamic network topology and traffic in LEO satellite networks. In addition, PMIPv6, the network-based mobility management protocol, outperforms MIPv6 which is the host-based mobility management protocol.