Effects of fixed and roaming CN on MIPv6 networks

Abstract

Mobile Internet protocol version 6 (MIPv6) is a protocol that allows mobile nodes (MNs) to remain accessible while moving in the IPv6 network, providing users with a form of transparency in spite of the mobility. Mobile networks consist of different nodes such as the MN, correspondent node (CN), home agent (HA), foreign agent or router (FA or FR) and mobile router (MR). One of the vital nodes in a mobile network is CN, a node that communicates with the MN. In the future, in times of need, for instance, during wars, disasters or natural hazards, an MN may require the services of a CN in order to roam. In this paper, we analyse the effect of fixed and roaming CN on MIPv6 networks. The results show that, with a fixed CN, the delay variation performance, end-to-end delay and packet received are better than having a roaming CN in the mobile networks. This requires the attention of researchers, especially when all the communicating nodes (i.e., MN and CN) are roaming in the mobile networks to reduce the delay and packet drop, especially during the handover process.

Keywords: MIPv6, fixed CN, roaming CN, MN, HA and FA.