Review Mobility management for IP-based next generation mobile networks: Review, challenge and perspective Ibrahim Al-Surmi a,n , Mohamed Othman a , Borhanuddin Mohd Ali b a Department of Communication Technology and Network, Faculty of Computer Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor D.E., Malaysia b Department of Computer and Communications Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor D.E., Malaysia article info Article history: Received 2 March 2011 Received in revised form 20 August 2011 Accepted 8 September 2011 Available online 17 September 2011 Keywords: IPv6 Host-based Network-based Location management Handover management abstract IP Mobility management protocols are divided into two kinds of category: host-based and network- based mobility protocol. The former category, such as MIPv6 protocol and its enhancements (e.g., HMIPv6 and FMIPv6), supports the mobility of a Mobile Node (MN) to roam across network domains. This is done through the involvement of MN in the mobility-related signalling, which requires protocol stack modification and IP address changes on the MN. The latter category, such as PMIPv6 protocol, handles mobility management on behalf of the MN thereby enabling it to connect and roam within localized domains, which requires neither protocol stack modification nor IP address change of the MN. PMIPv6 attracts attention in the Internet and telecommunication societies by improving the perfor- mance of the MN’s communication to fulfil the requirements of QoS for real-time services. In this article, we present IPv6 features to support mobile systems and survey the mobility management services along with their techniques, strategies and protocol categories, and elaborate upon the classification and comparison among various mobility management protocols. Furthermore, it identi- fies and discusses several issues and challenges facing mobility management along with an evaluation and comparison of several relevant mobility studies. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 296 2. Overview on Internet Protocol version 6 ............................................................................... 297 2.1. IPv6 headers ................................................................................................ 298 2.2. IPv6 addresses .............................................................................................. 298 2.3. Neighbour discovery ......................................................................................... 298 2.4. IPv6 address auto-configuration ................................................................................ 299 2.4.1. Stateful address auto-configuration....................................................................... 299 2.4.2. Stateless address auto-configuration ...................................................................... 299 3. Mobility management services ....................................................................................... 299 3.1. Location management ........................................................................................ 299 3.2. Handover management ....................................................................................... 299 3.2.1. Handover strategies ................................................................................... 300 3.2.2. Handover situation.................................................................................... 300 3.2.3. Handover categories ................................................................................... 300 4. IP mobility management protocols .................................................................................... 301 4.1. Host-based mobility protocols at network layer.................................................................... 301 4.1.1. Mobile IPv4 (MIPv4)................................................................................... 301 4.1.2. Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6)................................................................................... 302 4.1.3. Fast handover for MIPv6 (FMIPv6) ....................................................................... 302 4.1.4. Hierarchical MIPv6 (HMIPv6) ........................................................................... 303 4.2. Network-based mobility protocols at network layer ................................................................ 303 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jnca Journal of Network and Computer Applications 1084-8045/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2011.09.001 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ603 89466556. E-mail addresses: iaa_a@yahoo.com (I. Al-Surmi), mothman@fsktm.upm.edu.my (M. Othman). Journal of Network and Computer Applications 35 (2012) 295–315