Towards an architecture to support complex multihomed mobility scenarios

In this paper, we present the Multihomed Mobile Network Architecture (MMNA), a comprehensive multihomed mobility solution for complex nested mobility scenarios. It provides a multihoming management mechanism for gateway discovery and selection, on top of an efficient multihomed mobility model integrating different mobility and multihoming protocols. We describe how the MMNA was experimentally implemented and evaluated in a testbed setup. We first validated the capabilities of the solution in terms of different multihoming features, namely load sharing, link failure recovery, and preference setting. We then examined the effectiveness and feasibility of the MMNA solution considering a use case example of a search and rescue scenario. The results highlight the practicality and advantages of deploying the MMNA solution into realistic scenarios

Multihomed mobile network architecture

IP mobility ensures network reachability and session continuity while IPv6 networks are on the move. In the Network Mobility (NEMO) model, the potential for NEMO Mobile Routers (MRs) to interconnect and extend Internet connectivity allows the formation Nested NEMO networks. With MANEMO, nested MRs can be efficiently interconnected in a tree-based structure with Internet access being maintained via a designated Gateway. However, this only supports single-homed Internet connectivity. With the span of wireless access technologies and the popularity of multi-interfaced devices, multihoming support in this scenario becomes critical. A Nested Mobile Network with heterogeneous available Internet access options would allow better overall network performance and optimal utilisation of available resources. In this paper, we present the Multihomed Mobile Network Architecture (MMNA), a comprehensive multihomed mobility solution. It provides a multihoming management mechanism for Gateway Discovery and Selection on top of a multihomed mobility model integrating different mobility and multihoming protocols. It enables a complex nested multihomed topology to be established with multiple gateways supporting heterogeneous Internet access. The results demonstrate that the proposed solution achieves better overall throughput, load sharing, and link failure recovery

Efficient mobility and multihoming support for mountain rescue

Introducing an IP-based communication system into the mountain rescue domain would enable carrying out search and rescue missions in an effective way. With efficient mobility and multihoming support, a Mountain Rescue Team would be able to establish more effective and reliable Internet communication. In this paper, we present the Multihomed Mobile Network Architecture (MMNA), a comprehensive multihomed mobility solution for complex nested mobility scenarios. It provides a multihoming management mechanism for gateway discovery and selection, on top of an efficient multihomed mobility model integrating different mobility and multihoming protocols. The design of the MMNA solution is first presented. We then describe how the MMNA was experimentally implemented and evaluated in a testbed setup to examine its effectiveness and feasibility considering a use case example of a mountain rescue scenario. The results highlight the practicality and advantages of deploying the MMNA into such a critical real-world scenario

Ad Hoc Networking in the Internet: A Deeper Problem Than It Seems

Self-organized networks, also known as ad hoc networks or MANETs, are expected to soon become important components in the Internet architecture. Numerous efforts currently focus on the accomplishment of scalable and efficient mobile ad hoc routing, an essential piece in order to fully integrate ad hoc networks in the Internet. However, an orthogonal and yet as important issue lies with ad hoc IP autoconfiguration. Indeed, prior to participation in IP communication and routing, a node must acquire IP addresse(s) to configure its interface(s). These IP addresses may be required to be unique within a certain scope and/or topologically "correct". Since nodes may be mobile and neither the set of nodes in the MANET nor their connections to each other is pre-determined, the proper configuration must be detected and acquired automatically. This paper reviews the applicability, in the particular context of MANETs, of standard automatic address configuration and prefix allocation protocols, and identifies the different categories of issues that are not solved by these protocols. The paper then elaborates further on why these issues are more profound than they seem, as they pertain to graph theory and are in fact real scalability and architectural issues for the Internet of tomorrow

Handover management in mobile WiMAX using adaptive cross-layer technique

The protocol type and the base station (BS) technology are the main communication media between the Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) communication in vehicular networks. During high speed vehicle movement, the best communication would be with a seamless handover (HO) delay in terms of lower packet loss and throughput. Many studies have focused on how to reduce the HO delay during lower speeds of the vehicle with data link (L2) and network (L3) layers protocol. However, this research studied the Transport Layer (L4) protocol mobile Stream Control Transmission Protocol (mSCTP) used as an optimal protocol in collaboration with the Location Manager (LM) and Domain Name Server (DNS). In addition, the BS technology that performs smooth HO employing an adaptive algorithm in L2 to perform the HO according to current vehicle speed was also included in the research. The methods derived from the combination of L4 and the BS technology methods produced an Adaptive Cross-Layer (ACL) design which is a mobility oriented handover management scheme that adapts the HO procedure among the protocol layers. The optimization has a better performance during HO as it is reduces scanning delay and diversity level as well as support transparent mobility among layers in terms of low packet loss and higher throughput. All of these metrics are capable of offering maximum flexibility and efficiency while allowing applications to refine the behaviour of the HO procedure. Besides that, evaluations were performed in various scenarios including different vehicle speeds and background traffic. The performance evaluation of the proposed ACL had approximately 30% improvement making it better than the other handover solutions

Cooperative resource pooling in multihomed mobile networks

The ubiquity of multihoming amongst mobile devices presents a unique opportunity for users to co-operate, sharing their available Internet connectivity, forming multihomed mobile networks on demand. This model provides users with vast potential to increase the quality of service they receive. Despite this, such mobile networks are typically underutilized and overly restrictive, as additional Internet connectivity options are predominantly ignored and selected gateways are both immutable and incapable of meeting the demand of the mobile network. This presents a number of research challenges, as users look to maximize their quality of experience, while balancing both the financial cost and power consumption associated with utilizing a diverse set of heterogeneous Internet connectivity options. In this thesis we present a novel architecture for mobile networks, the contribution of which is threefold. Firstly, we ensure the available Internet connectivity is appropriately advertised, building a routing overlay which allows mobile devices to access any available network resource. Secondly, we leverage the benefits of multipath communications, providing the mobile device with increased throughput, additional resilience and seamless mobility. Finally, we provide a multihomed framework, enabling policy driven network resource management and path selection on a per application basis. Policy driven resource management provides a rich and descriptive approach, allowing the context of the network and the device to be taken into account when making routing decisions at the edge of the Internet. The aim of this framework, is to provide an efficient and flexible approach to the allocation of applications to the optimal network resource, no matter where it resides in a mobile network. Furthermore, we investigate the benefits of path selection, facilitating the policy framework to choose the optimal network resource for specific applications. Through our evaluation, we prove that our approach to advertising Internet connectivity in a mobile network is both efficient and capable of increasing the utilization of the available network capacity. We then demonstrate that our policy driven approach to resource management and path selection can further improve the user’s quality of experience, by tailoring network resource usage to meet their specific needs

Hierarchical network topographical routing

Within the last 10 years the content consumption model that underlies many of the assumptions about traffic aggregation within the Internet has changed; the previous short burst transfer followed by longer periods of inactivity that allowed for statistical aggregation of traffic has been increasingly replaced by continuous data transfer models. Approaching this issue from a clean slate perspective; this work looks at the design of a network routing structure and supporting protocols for assisting in the delivery of large scale content services. Rather than approaching a content support model through existing IP models the work takes a fresh look at Internet routing through a hierarchical model in order to highlight the benefits that can be gained with a new structural Internet or through similar modifications to the existing IP model. The work is divided into three major sections: investigating the existing UK based Internet structure as compared to the traditional Autonomous System (AS) Internet structural model; a localised hierarchical network topographical routing model; and intelligent distributed localised service models. The work begins by looking at the United Kingdom (UK) Internet structure as an example of a current generation technical and economic model with shared access to the last mile connectivity and a large scale wholesale network between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the end user. This model combined with the Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and transparency of the wholesale network results in an enforced inefficiency within the overall network restricting the ability of ISPs to collaborate. From this model a core / edge separation hierarchical virtual tree based routing protocol based on the physical network topography (layers 2 and 3) is developed to remove this enforced inefficiency by allowing direct management and control at the lowest levels of the network. This model acts as the base layer for further distributed intelligent services such as management and content delivery to enable both ISPs and third parties to actively collaborate and provide content from the most efficient source