Optimization of mobile IPv6-based handovers to support VoIP services in wireless heterogeneous networks

The support of voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in next-generation wireless systems requires the coupling of mobility with quality of service. The mobile node can experience disruptions or even intermittent disconnections of an ongoing real-time session due to handovers. The duration of such interruptions is called disruption time or handover delay and can heavily affect-user satisfaction. Therefore, this delay needs to be minimized to provide good-quality VoIP services. In this paper, the focus is on the network layer mobility, specifically on mobile Internet Protocols (MIPs), since they are natural candidates for providing mobility at layer 3. Using analytical models, the authors evaluate MIPv4, MIPv6, fast MIPv6 (FMIPv6), and hierarchical MIPv6 (HMIPv6) and compare their performances in terms of handover delay for VoIP services. To optimize the handover delay, the authors propose to use the adaptive retransmission timer described in this paper. The results obtained using the adaptive timer technique show that for a 3% frame error rate and a 128-kb/s channel, the handoff delay is about 0.075 s (predictive) and 0.051 s (reactive) for FMIPv6. It is around 0.047 s [intra-mobile anchor point (MAP)] and 1.47 s (inter-MAP) for HMIPv6, around 1 s for MIPv6, and 0.26 s for MIPv4.