A Performance Comparison of Mobile IPv6, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6, Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 and their Combination

Mobile IP, the current IETF proposal for IP mobility support, represents a key element for
future All-IP wireless networks to provide service continuity while on the move within a
multi-access environment. We conducted a performance evaluation of Mobile IPv6 and its
proposed enhancements, i.e., Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6, Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 and
our proposed combination of them, using the network simulator ns-2 for the case of a
‘hot spot’ deployment scenario. The simulation scenario comprises four access routers and
up to 50 mobile nodes that communicate in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN
standard. The study provides quantitative results of the performance improvements obtained
by the proposed enhancements as observed by a single mobile user with respect to handoff
latency, packet loss rate and achieved bandwidth per station. As a complementary part of the
study, the signaling load costs associated with the performance improvements provided by the
enhancements has been analyzed. The simulation environment allowed us also to investigate
the behavior of the protocol in extreme cases, e.g., under channel saturation conditions and
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considering different traffic sources: CBR, VoIP, Video and TCP transfers. While some
simulation results corroborate the intention of the protocols specifications, other results give
insights not easily gained without performing simulations. This study provides a deep
understanding of the overall performance of the various protocols and supports the design
process of a Mobile IPv6-based network when a decision of whether it is appropriate to
implement any of the proposed Mobile IPv6 enhancements has to be made.