Fast IP Handover for Multimedia Services in Wireless Train Networks

Abstract

This paper proposes a fast IP handover scheme for multimedia services in wireless train networks. This scheme uses the peculiar mobility characteristics of public vehicles such as trains and buses. Their moving pattern has a tendency to be predictable, because the moving path and direction are very routine. This enables a mobile router on the train to predict and to prepare the next IP layer handover before the link layer handover occurs, thereby the service disruption time due to handover will be reduced to the link layer handover latency. In order to perform the predictive IP handover, this scheme uses three mechanisms, such as predictive handover decision, predictive handover initiation, and predictive binding update. Analytical results showed that the proposed scheme can provide excellent performance in terms of service disruption time and packet loss ratio, compared with the existing IP handover scheme for mobile networks.