Analysis of PMIPv6 extensions for identifying and assessing the efforts made for solving the issues in the PMIPv6 domain: A systematic review

Context: Proxy mobile IPv6 protocol becomes one of the most popular mobility management protocols due to its seamless handover as well as relieving mobile nodes during the mobility process. Relieving mobile nodes during the mobility process also eases the deployment of mobility protocols. However, achieving mobility management via additional network entities results in issues such as long handoff latency, packet loss, signalling cost, load distribution as well as mobility support in basic proxy mobile IPv6. However, to address and solve these issues; researchers and experts have enhanced its performance in a number of directions to provide the best possible solution. Efforts are still in progress to exploit effective features to optimize the functionality of PMIPv6 protocol extensions. Objective: In this research study, the existing PMIPv6 extensions are analysed for the main factors affecting its performance, in order to know the important features that should be taken into account when designing new PMIPv6 extensions. To achieve this, a systematic procedure is followed for literature collection and quality assessment so that to present a comprehensive overview of PMIPv6 extensions that will help the researchers to know the existing status of research domain, its trends, active issues in order provide better PMIPv6 solutions for future needs. Method: For this purpose, the existing research from 2008 to 2019 is thoroughly analysed for the efforts made by researchers that have enhanced the performance of the proxy mobile IPv6 protocol. Research questions are defined for problems existed in the PMIPv6 domain, and then the analysis is conducted to achieve effective outcomes. These major issues addressed are handoff latency, signalling cost, buffering overhead, packet loss ratio, and load balancing. Results: The results of the proposed study suggest that despite of the efforts made in the domain of proxy mobile IPv6, the newer extensions should exploit the current advancement as well as the capabilities of the internet accessible devices. The presented study suggests several hybrid and integrated solutions, and these suggestions show good potential for enhancing the performance of proxy mobile IPv6 extensions.