Performance Analysis of Adaptive Location Management for Mobile IP

Mobile IP is the proposed standard for IP based mobile internetworking by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). A mobile node registers its current location with its home agent when it moves across IP subnets in a foreign network. IP datagrams for the mobile node are routed to its home agent before being tunneled to the mobile node through its current foreign agent. When a mobile node is far away from home, registration with its home agent can cause a long handoo delay that leads to signiicant packet drop and throughput reduction. We have developed a dynamic location control scheme that extends Mobile IP with routing agents. Local movements are handled directly by the routing agent of a mobile node. Only macro movements require registrations at the home agent by the mobile node via its routing agent. This paper analyzes the performance of standard Mobile IP and Mobile IP with routing agents in terms of registration cost, packet drop, and packet tunneling cost. The introduction of routing agents preserves Mobile IP as a special case and many of its advantages, but provides better support for micro mobility and allows greater exibility for location control based upon diierent cost factors.