Load sharing and session preservation with multiple mobile routers for large scale mobile networks

By means of NEtwork MObility (NEMO) support, users can organise their various communication devices into a subnet called mobile network. The Mobile Router (MR) provides the connectivity to the internet and mobility management transparency for the rest of the mobile nodes in the mobile network. So, the MR must assure reliable communications and a high data rate for the group of nodes behind it. In support of broadband wireless communications, the use of multiple MRs would allow the transfer of large volumes of data to a group of mobile nodes. This paper addresses the protocol issues arising from the use of multiple MRs, and analyses the influence of mobility patterns on load sharing and session preservation. Then, two mobility-aware selection schemes are proposed, which select a MR. Firstly, the best-connected MR selection scheme is designed for regular mobility and is based on the fact that the most recently updated binding remains effective for the longest period of time. It preserves the connection from the mobile network to the internet whether the accessible area is continuous or not, and this even in a fast handoff environment. Secondly, the most-beneficial MR selection scheme is designed for random mobility. The simulation results show that the performance varies depending on the hardware configuration. Based on these results, it was found that application-awareness is critical to achieve good performance.