Cross-Layer Design for Reducing Handoff Latency in Mobile Network ⋆

Abstract. In the last year, the Internet engineering task force (IETF) adopted the network mobility (NEMO) basic support protocol (NBS) as a request for comments (RFC) to make possible Internet access services on mobile networks. Even though the NBS has opened a new era in NEMO, its long handoff latency should be solved for the support of seamless services. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer scheme using modified reassociation frame to reduce handoff latency in the presence of movements of both the network and the nodes. In addition, the proposed scheme introduces use of a cache to manage the addresses of the mobile nodes (MN) and the mobile routers (MR), and assigns a unique address toeachMNorthenetworkbasedontheinformationinthecache.We compare the performance of the proposed scheme with those of MIPv6, FMIPv6, and HMIPv6. From the results, the handoff latency of the proposed scheme is lower about 30-80 % than those of other algorithms. In addition, the proposed scheme shows 56 % higher cost efficiency than others.