A novel network mobility handoff scheme using SIP and SCTP for multimedia applications

In a heterogeneous wireless environment, seamless mobility is the basis of network support with which mobile users who roam between or among Various wireless access networks are able to fully enjoy uninterrupted wireless services. When users are in a mass transportation vehicle, e.g., a bus or a train that provides network service, the vehicle can be regarded as a network which is serving users as it moves from one location to another. The movement of a network is called network mobility (NEMO). The network mobility protocol based on Mobile IPv6 as proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 2005 has some fundamental drawbacks, such as header overhead and the pinball problem. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid method for network mobility called Hybrid-NEMO, which provides a soft handoff scheme at the transport layer basically utilizing SIP and SCTP protocols to ensure a lossless packet-transmission environment and less handoff-delay variation, which are critical in providing QoS voice and Multimedia applications. Experimental validation and performance evaluation were also conducted in this Study. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.