Analysis of handover process and fast handover extensions for a hierarchical micro-mobility protocol.

The purpose of this paper is to speed up handover processing. The handover process is first analyzed. Based on the result of analysis, an extension of the protocol is proposed, in which adjustment of the timer value, a mechanism to report the link layer information to the network layer, and a speed-up of DAD processing are considered. The extended protocol is implemented. A problem in the operating system is identified by experiments, and solutions are presented. This paper also presents the tool constructed for the handover experiment, which produces a network shift at the desired time and timing. The handover time was measured and evaluated using the tool in an experimental environment, and it was shown that the handover time is drastically reduced compared to the system based on the standard IPv6 specification. The effect of the handover time on the application was evaluated, and it was demonstrated that the proposed method can realize handover with little effect on the application, although the environment is prepared by emulating wireless communications by cable communications. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 88(11): 44–53, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (<URL>www.interscience.wiley.com</URL>). DOI 10.1002/ecja.20213 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]