Introducing Adaptivity into Mobile Network Protocol

Mobile data networks are important parts of global communications. The network protocol deployed in the mobile network is typically based on a wireline network protocol, which is either a connection-oriented network protocol or connectionless network protocol. In this paper, we show that neither of these protocols ts well for a dynamic mobile network. Instead, we argue that by enabling the network protocol to be adaptive based on the local area mobility situation, the network is able to possess both exibility of a connectionless network protocol and QoS provisioning capability of a connection-oriented network protocol. As the result, the network can deliver high quality and robust communications under a wide range of mobility extent. The preliminary framework, referred to as the Adaptive Network Protocol (ANP), is designed to achieve this goal. New concepts and ideas are explored to form the core of the new framework. With packet level performance analysis, we verify that ANP outperforms both xed connection-oriented and connectionless network protocol under a wide range of network mobility situations theoretically. Therefore, we believe ANP provides a conceptual objective for future network protocol designs in dynamic mobile networks and heterogeneous networking.