Seamless mobility across next generation heterogeneous network

Abstract

A vision of future wireless networks is the coexistence technologies used by existing wireless access networks. These networks will be bound together into a single network using Internet Protocol (IP) as the glue. In order to fulfill this vision, one has to address the challenge of supporting mobility across heterogeneous wireless networks. The issues of when and how the handovers are performed while moving from one network to another, affects the performance of the mobile services. While on the move, mobile users experience connectivity disturbances, particularly when they handoff between two access points that belong to the same wireless network and also when they change from one access technology to another. This dissertation addresses the issues of seamless mobility across heterogeneous network and has successfully presented a model to support mobility across homogeneous and heterogeneous environments by integrating two major mobility protocols (MIP and SIP). The functionality of the model was simulated and performance analysis undertaken using the tool OPNET.