Mobility Management for Hierarchical Wireless Networks

In this paper, we consider the mobility management in large, hierarchically organized multihop wireless networks. The examples of such networks range from battlefield networks, emergency disaster relief and law enforcement etc. We present a novel network addressing architecture to accommodate mobility using a “Home Agent” concept akin to mobile IP. We distinguish between the “physical” routing hierarchy (dictated by geographical relationships between nodes) and “logical” hierarchy of subnets in which the members move as a group (e.g., company, brigade, battalion in the battlefield). The performance of the mobility management scheme is investigated through simulation.