A simulation study on the performance of mobile IPv6 in a WLAN-based cellular network

• Authors: Xavier Pérez Costa;Hannes Hartenstein
• Venue: Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking - Special issue: Towards a new internet architecture
• Year: 2002

We performed a simulative evaluation of Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) via ns-2 for a scenario comprising up to three access routers and 30 mobile nodes that communicate in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard. We compare standard MIPv6 to a fast handoff procedure and analyze route optimization issues. We present results with respect to handoff latency, packet loss, end-to-end delay, signaling load, channel utilization, and bandwidth per station, and show how various traffic types like UDP CBR, VoIP, and TCP are affected by the handoffs. While some simulation results corroborate the intention of the protocol specification, other results give insights not easily gained without performing simulations. For example, we learned that (i) the fast handoff mechanism almost fully eliminates packet losses but only improves handoff latency in specific cases, (ii) the signaling load introduced by MIPv6 does not severely affect the performance, and (iii) in a shared environment like IEEE 802.11, traffic type can affect the handoff rate since in high-load situations router advertisements might get lost more frequently thereby 'irritating' the handoff decision mechanism. As a challenge for future simulations we have identified the design of a random mobility model that allows good control of the handoff rate.