IP-based protocols in cellular networks and mobility management

An analysis of IP-based protocols and mechanisms to support host mobility throughout the Internet is going to be performed in this paper. The mobile nodes are identified by its home address, regardless of its current point of attachment. When away from its home the mobile node gets associated with a care-of-address. This is the mechanism provided by Mobile IP. Mobile IP is well suited for Macro-mobility by it suffers delays when performing micro-mobility. Due to the shortcomings in Mobile IP another mobility management protocol has been proposed, called Micro-Mobile IP. It considers paging which is not taken into account by Mobile IP and the regional registration draft presented by the IETF. A signaling cost analysis is presented in order to justify and prove the enhancements needed in Mobile IP. It will be show through simulations the protocol's weaknesses and possible improvements.