Title: Providing transparent internet mobility for dual-interfaced mobile devices

Authors: Riaz Inayat, Reiji Aibara, Kouji Nishimura

Addresses: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Corporate Headquarters, G-8/4, Islamabad-44000, Pakistan. ' Information Media Center, Hiroshima University, 1-4-2 kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8511, Japan. ' Information Media Center, Hiroshima University, 1-4-2 kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8511, Japan

Abstract: Ubiquitous networking is definitely real to the mobile users; however, transparent mobility is certainly a challenge. Seamless roaming in hybrid and integrated environments demands a seamless intra-network as well as inter-network handoff mechanism for minimising any service disruption to on-going flows during switchovers. We show in this paper this could be achieved by properly managing multiple network interfaces with a handoff. We devise a client-based handoff mechanism based on the characteristics of a typical heterogeneous wireless environment by using multimode multiple network interfaces. The interface switching mechanism to minimise the power consumption is also presented. We also develop an analytical model to evaluate the performance of our proposed scheme in IP-based wireless networks. The results show that by exploiting the overlapping area between subnets and speed of mobile devices with proper management of multiple interfaces, we can significantly minimise the service disruption during handoff in heterogeneous environments.

Keywords: mobile internet; ubiquitous networking; seamless mobility; all IP networks; multi-interfaced devices; mobile networks; multiple network interfaces; handoff; wireless networks; power consumption.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2008.019716

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2008 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.35 - 45

Published online: 25 Jul 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article