Seamless Handoff Using Mailbox Approach

Abstract

Mobile IP is used to keep track of location information and make the data available to the mobile devices anytime, anywhere. Mobile IP has been widely accepted but lacks in providing seamless handoff. We have proposed a framework for wireless network that uses a flexible and adaptive mailbox-based scheme. In this scheme a mailbox associated with each mobile node while allowing de coupling between them. The FIFO message buffer of mailbox used to store incoming messages destined to a mobile node. Mailbox can be detached from its owner node in the sense that the mailbox can reside at a location different from the current location of the owner node. During handoff, mailbox of mobile node can itself decide whether it has to move from current mobility agent (home agent or foreign agent) to new mobility agent. A pull technique, MPUL (Message Pull) adopted to implement the message delivery from mailbox to its owner node. The performance tradeoff for various mobility conditions are evaluated using analytical model.