On the Layer based Seamless Handover Schemes for Mobile Data Network

Abstract

This paper presents seamless handover schemes survey based on layer approach. Efficient handover scheme is very important in order to minimize the handover latency in mobile network. Latency is mainly affected when new IP address has to be obtained in layer 3 and layer 4 handover mechanisms because this is processed by software. Therefore, we have to focus on the exact mechanism to obtain new IP address and delete old IP address. IPv6 tries to reduce the latency by using stateless-auto-configuration method instead of DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) in layer 3 handover. However, this method limits most of applications using IPv4. SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) uses multi-homing features with dual interfaces. L4 handover scheme using SCTP is well known to reduce the handover latency more than the handover scheme using TCP. However, SCTP handover scheme utilizes IP address in L4, which violates the strict layer independence. This paper provides us with the pros and cons to determine which handover scheme is applicable to the specific application environment.