Performance Analysis of a Vertical Handover Framework of DiNAT for Mobility Management

Abstract

A common communication scenario for many users was Connectivity anywhere and anytime through switching between heterogeneous wireless networks. A Handover decision was a proper switching scheme between the wireless interfaces of the communication device and the identification of mobile nodes must be managed. This work presents a vertical handover framework including a mobility management solution as well. It mainly support Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time applications, applies a strategy for stable and soft switching between the multiple interfaces of the mobile device, and presents a light weight signaling scheme for address resolution to quickly recover running sessions. The handover decisions are based on user’s configuration, network attributes, and node’s context information. A connection is transferred onto a new interface only when it is associated to the newly selected network and ready to take over the traffic. The identity of the mobile node is maintained by leveraging the well-known and widely employed Network Address Translation (NAT) for the purpose of mobility management in a new version that as Dynamic index NAT (DiNAT). Local and global mobility are supported through hierarchical deployment of DiNAT-enabled anchor points, with no need for pre-knowledge or cooperation of neighbour networks. The paper introduces the proposed approach as a cross-layer system composed of modules that handle the mentioned tasks, and provides details on the concept of each. The network simulator OMNeT++ is used to model the system and test its feasibility, as compared to a widely adopted solution for mobility management, running real-time applications while moving.