Abstract
Modern wireless networks rely on mobile Internet Protocol (IP) technology to manage handovers among different subnets. However, the poor performance of traditional mobile IP protocols can affect negatively delay sensitive services. Recently, network-based IP mobility has been proposed as a potential solution. Although initial evaluations have already confirmed the practical advantages of this new approach, a proper investigation of existing methods has yet to be performed. In the present paper, an evaluation framework is proposed to investigate handover performance metrics in network-based IP mobility. The framework is subsequently employed to analyze prominent methods. Analytical results highlight the efficiency of each solution under different operating conditions and reveal the main factors that affect the performance. Unlike other comparative studies, this framework has been developed to assist IP mobility designers in analyzing the effects of system parameters on their proposed solutions. A new prediction-based mobility solution for metropolitan area networks is suggested, and its design parameters are analyzed by utilizing the proposed framework. The present study not only provides deeper insights into network-based IP mobility but also a framework for faster analysis of future solutions in this category.