Probabilistic scheme for reducing packet loss in mobile IPv6

Abstract

Mobile IPv6 is a network layer protocol. It allows a Mobile Node to remain reachable by a Correspondent Node while roaming from one network to another network. The movement of a Mobile Node away from its home link is transparent to the higher layer protocols as well as to the applications. In Mobile IPv6, a Mobile Node directly updates its current location information to a Correspondent Node using a route optimization method. Route optimization helps to culminate the packet delay incurred due to suboptimal route traversed by the packets from a Correspondent Node to a Mobile Node in Mobile IPv4. However, it introduces packet losses during Mobile Node's transition from one foreign network to another foreign network. This packet loss increases as the mobility of the node increases. In this thesis, we propose a probabilistic scheme to reduce this packet loss. Our solution is based on the Mobile Node's mobility prediction at the Correspondent Node and a buffering mechanism at the Home Agent. Simulation results prove the effectiveness of our scheme in case of reducing the packet loss problem besetting the Mobile IPv6.