A Novel Fast Local Mobility Protocol for Next Generation Mobile Networks

• Author(s): Nuno G. Ferreira ; Rui Aguiar ; Susana Sargento
• Date: 2013
• Origin: Electrónica e Telecomunicações
• Subject(s): mobility protocol; Next Generation Mobile Network; mobility protocol; Next Generation Mobile Network
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

In the current mobile cellular networks the terminal mobility support is based on layer-1 and homogenous layer-2 mechanisms. This mobility support is sufficient for current numbers of mobile terminals, however in the future it is expected that this number will significantly increase. In order to handle the increasing number of mobile terminals with distinct layer-2 interfaces and also to support the paradigm of “Internet Everywhere”, the next generation networks will be entirely based on Internet Protocol (IP).Nonetheless, IP does not support mobility per se, thus, it isessential to develop efficient mechanisms to guarantee thisfundamental requirement. This paper presents a possiblesolution for this problem and also demonstrates, withimplementation results, that this new vision is fairly possibleto be used in Next Generation Mobile Network. In the current mobile cellular networks the terminal mobility support is based on layer-1 and homogenous layer-2 mechanisms. This mobility support is sufficient for current numbers of mobile terminals, however in the future it is expected that this number will significantly increase. In order to handle the increasing number of mobile terminals with distinct layer-2 interfaces and also to support the paradigm of “Internet Everywhere”, the next generation networks will be entirely based on Internet Protocol (IP).Nonetheless, IP does not support mobility per se, thus, it isessential to develop efficient mechanisms to guarantee thisfundamental requirement. This paper presents a possiblesolution for this problem and also demonstrates, with implementation results, that this new vision is fairly possibleto be used in Next Generation Mobile Network.