A mobility-based load control scheme in Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 networks

Abstract

By introducing a mobility anchor point (MAP), Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) reduces the signaling overhead and handoff latency associated with Mobile IPv6. In this paper, we propose a mobility-based load control (MLC) scheme, which mitigates the burden of the MAP in fully distributed and adaptive manners. The MLC scheme combines two algorithms: a threshold-based admission control algorithm and a session-to-mobility ratio (SMR)-based replacement algorithm. The threshold-based admission control algorithm gives higher priority to ongoing mobile nodes (MNs) than new MNs, by blocking new MNs when the number of MNs being serviced by the MAP is greater than a predetermined threshold. On the other hand, the SMR-based replacement algorithm achieves efficient MAP load distribution by considering MNs' traffic and mobility patterns. We analyze the MLC scheme using the continuous time Markov chain in terms of the new MN blocking probability, ongoing MN dropping probability, and binding update cost. Also, the MAP processing latency is evaluated based on the M/G/1 queueing model. Analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the MLC scheme outperforms other schemes and thus it is a viable solution for scalable HMIPv6 networks.