Packet delivery in Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) relies on an anchor node called LMA. All packets sent by a source node reach a receiver node via LMA, even though the two nodes attach to the same MAG. In some scenarios, PMIPv6 results in high delivery latency and processing costs due to this unnecessary detour. To address this issue, several PMIPv6 route optimization schemes have been proposed. However, high signaling costs and excessive delays remain when handover is performed. For this reason, we propose an enhanced PMIPv6 route optimization (EPRO) scheme. In addition, we analyze the performance of the EPRO. Analytical results indicate that the EPRO outperforms previous schemes in terms of signaling overhead and handover latency.

Flow mobility is an emerging technology to support flexible network selection for an application flow and to spread concentrated load to less-overloaded Internet access. Network-based flow mobility (FMO) does not require a massive amount of software logic and system resources on the mobile node. Under this approach, there are two kinds of modes available: network-initiated and user-initiated. Network-initiated FMO decides the best access network suited for a specific flow, but the decisions depend on the operator's policy. Therefore, it has limitations in supporting the user's preference and private network selection. In the user-initiated mode, users can hand off specific flow so that information of both the current user's preference and the conditions of private network are reflected. User-initiated flow mobility method has not been what should be specified and how it can be supported with the protocol sequence for real deployment. This paper extends Internet Exchange Key v2 (IKEv2) and an Attach request message to support user-initiated FMO when a flow moves between 3G and Wi-Fi access. Through performance analysis, we confirm that user-initiated FMO is superior to network-initiated FMO in terms of signaling overhead and handover latency costs.

Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) has been proposed in order to overcome the limitations of host-based mobility management in IPv6 networks. However, packet losses during doing handover are still a problem. To solve this issue, several schemes have been developed, and can be classified into two approaches: predictive and reactive handover. Both approaches commonly use bi-directional tunnel between mobile access gateways (MAGs). In predictive schemes especially, mobility support for a mobile node (MN) is triggered by simplified link signal strength. Thereafter, the MN sends handover notification to its serving MAG, and is then able to initiate packet forwarding. Therefore, if the MN moves toward an unexpected MAG that does not have any pre-established tunnel with the serving MAG, it may lead to packet losses. In this paper, we define this problem as Early Packet Forwarding (EPF). As a solution, we propose an enhanced PMIPv6 scheme using two-phase tunnel control based on the IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH).