Proxy Based Handover Analysis for Mobile IPv6

Abstract

Mobile IPv6 is a network layer IP standard which allows nodes to remain reachable while moving around in the IPv6 Internet. It enables a Mobile node to maintain its connectivity to the Internet when moving from one access router to another, a process referred to as handover. Although communications in mobile IPv6 networks can be preserved across handovers, there is a high possibility that these communications could be interrupted due to loss of packets during handovers. So if handovers occur frequently, quality of communications can drop significantly. This thesis, at first, describes the operation of mobile IPv6 networks and points out the problems that degrade the communication performance across handovers. Then after a proxy based handover analysis is done which focuses on how to keep lost packets on proxy router and for how much time to be kept so that the packets can be recovered quickly after handovers. The research is carried out to cache lost packets only and to design a mechanism that filters lost packets only. After completion of this project, a proxy based solution will be proposed for better communication performance across handovers. In addition to the proposed solution, the thesis will also discuss on design and implementation issues by creating the test environment simulated in a local area network with both physical and virtual hosts.