Mobile Inter-networking with IPv6 : Concepts, Principles and Practices

15

Fast Handovers Protocol

Any computer project will take twice as long as you think it will even when you take into account Hofstadter’s law.    –Douglas Hofstadter

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We studied the basic concepts of fast handovers in the previous chapter. Specifically, we studied the bottlenecks causing delay and packet loss during a handover and how the design addresses movement detection, IP configuration and location update procedures to effectively support real-time applications such as VoIP during a handover. In this chapter, we will study the protocol specification [4] in much greater detail. As with IETF protocols, terms such as "MUST", "SHOULD" and "MAY" have specific formal definitions [1]. For most practical purposes, these terms translate into "Required", "Recommended", and "Optional" respectively.

15.1 NEIGHBORHOOD PREFIX DISCOVERY

15.1.1 Sending Router Solicitation for Proxy Advertisement

A mobile node can perform neighborhood prefix discovery at any time after it has discovered neighborhood access points or base stations. A convenient time to do both neighborhood access point discovery and prefix discovery is right after an interface is enabled and the mobile node has finished router discovery. As we saw in the previous chapter, a mobile node uses the Router Solicitation for Proxy Advertisement (RtSolPr) for neighborhood prefix discovery. Neighborhood access point discovery is done ...