Smart Virtualization Packets Forwarding During Handover for Beyond 5G Networks

Keeping a connection continuity during the movement of a mobile node (MN) between access points without any suspension of provided services is one of the most pressing issues should be solved. Long handover processing causes interruptions in session connection, high rate of data loss, and long end-to-end delay time. Smart virtualization means the cooperation of different virtualization technologies with novel ideas. In this paper, we proposed a mobile network architecture compatible with cloud computing of 5G and beyond networks. We invented a new idea to create a tag to be used as an MN's identity, which consists of the standard E.164 numbering and MAC address. Based on the uniqueness of E.164 numbering and MAC which are processed together to generate the MN tag (T
_H
). T
_H
is used to handle the packets inside the mobile networks. The software-defined networking (SDN) provides a capability of separating the control plane from the data plane. This decoupling is a suitable candidate to exploit it in our proposed system that uses the SDN and other virtualization technologies. The requirements of the 5G and beyond for future mobile communications encouraged us to think in a novel packet forwarding during the handover to keep real-time connection continuity for an MN. Our proposed system has been simulated and performed by MATLAB and Mininet platforms. The results showed that the packet loss rate decreased to 4% of the date that was lost during the handover delay time or packets re-direction mechanism. At the same time, the MN could receive 96.4% of the data that were lost during the handover process.