摘要：In this paper, an alternative IEEE 802.21-assistedProxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) mechanism is proposed forreducing handover latency and signaling cost in heterogeneouswireless networks. The proposed mechanism comes to supportfast vertical handover for the mobile node (MN) irrespectiveof the presence or absence of Media Independent Handover(MIH) functionality as well as IP mobility functionality. Thatis, the MN does not need to be participated in any MIH relatedsignaling for handover procedure, which can be consistent withthe essential objective of the PMIPv6. The base station withMIH functionality performs handover on behalf of the MN.Therefore, the proposed mechanism can reduce burden andpower consumption of MNs with limited resource and batterypower. In addition, analytical evaluation, experiment andsimulation show that the proposed mechanism can outperformthe existing mechanism in terms of handover latency and totalnumber of over-the-air signaling messages. Thus, the proposedmechanism can be expected to reduce the packet loss andthe bandwidth consumption of wireless links during handoverprocedure comparing with the existing mechanism.
