IEEE-APWC Topical Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Wireless Communications, September 2012 Investigation of Handover Techniques in a IPv6 Mobile Network Johan Pieterse Dept of Electronic Engineering University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch, South Africa 7600 Email: fizzerpieterse@gmail.com Riaan Wolhuter Department of Electronic Engineering University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch, South Africa 7600 Email: wolhuter@sun.ac.za Abstract—Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is a proposed mobility stan- dard for Next Generation Wireless Access Networks that allows mobile nodes to stay reachable while moving around in a IPv6 internet environment. The need for MIPv6 exists because a mobile cannot maintain the previously link when changing location and IP address. This paper describes MIPv6 as simulated, using the Omnett++ Network Simulator Framework and implemented on a Linux IPv6 test bed. This was done to test handover latency, overhead added by the MIPv6 extensions and packet latency. These results are also used to compare the difference between the simulation results and the actual Linux test bed performance. The developed test setup was also used to implement Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6), to enhance the MIPv6 protocol, decreasing handover latency and enabling real-time IPv6 applications such as video streaming. Keywords: MIPv6, FMIPv6, Handover Latency. I. I BACKGROUND The initial IP Mobility protocol was first presented in 1993 for the IPv4 protocol [1]. The Mobile IP protocol solves the TCP/IP Layer 3 mobility, by assigning a permanent IP address to the mobile node. Mobile IP consists of both MIPv4 and MIPv6, but IPv4 has a couple of drawbacks, the main one being IP address exhaustion, making MIPv6 the future option for mobility protocol in IP Networks [1].The main goal of the mobility protocol is to enable network applications to operate continuously at the required quality of service for both wired and wireless networks [2]. MIPv6 uses the existing IPv6 protocol to enable seamless roaming between different access points [2], [3]. MIPv6 on its own needs optimization techniques to improve the handover latency of the protocol and the FMIPv6 protocol is implemented to minimize this latency. The MIPv6 and FMIPv6 protocols also introduce some new terminologies as proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which require prior familiarisation to understand the workings of MIPv6 and FMIPv6 [4]. The rest of the paper is structured as follows: The Objectives of this research is set out in Section II, while Methodology and Definitions, are presented in Sections II and III respectively. Methodology, Simulation and Implementation are contained in Sections IV, V and VI, with Results presented in Section VII. The paper is summarised and concluded in Section VIII. II. II OBJECTIVES The objectives of this investigation were to develop a test bed, in order to evaluate different handover strategies in a Mobile IPv6 network. This would also evaluate the capability of the IPv6 network protocol in a mobile network environment. Efficient handover strategies are important for MIPv6, as this is the main cause of packet loss thus reducing service quality in mobile networks. To reduce the handover latency, FMIPv6 were also implemented on the network to evaluate the improvements on the handover latency of MIPv6. III. III DEFINITIONS MIPv6 Terminology: Mobile Node (MN): The MN is a node that moves between different networks, namely the home network and foreign networks. Home Network (HN): The MN is permanently connected to this network. The subnet of this network corresponds to the home address of the MN and home agent [3]. Home Agent (HA): The home agent is a router in the HN responsible to forward packets destined for the MN when the MN has moved to a foreign network. Foreign Network (FN): This is the network to which the MN moves and attaches when not in the HN. Foreign Agent (FA): The foreign agent is a router in the FN to which a MN attaches when not in the HN. The FA assigns a care-of-address to the MN and is used to forward and receive packets destined for the MN [3]. Care-of-Address (CoA): This address is a IPv6 address assigned to the MN via the foreign agent and can be a agent care-of-address, or a co-located care-of-address. The MN uses this address to communicate when not in it’s home network. • Foreign Agent Care-of-Address (FA CoA): The MN gets the the IP of the foreign agent by use of Agent Adver- tisements. • Co-located Care-of-Address (CCoA): The MN receives this IP when the foreign network temporarily assigns an IP to the MN using Router Advertisements, or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. 978-1-4673-0405-4/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 1020