Wireless MPLS: A new layer 2.5 micro-mobility scheme

In next generation wireless networks, mobile nodes will be equipped with multiple interfaces and will be able to take advantage of overlay networks. In such environment, global IP mobility solutions have to be optimized to handle micro-mobility management, where low-latency handoffs are essential. Signalling overhead, foreign network detection and reconfiguration are not always met in current solutions. In this paper, we propose a new solution to overcome these limitations, namely a layer 2.5 mobility scheme for fast handover based on MPLS forwarding mechanism and a virtual interface architecture: W-MPLS. Our MPLS approach, is triggered by the mobile and controlled by the network. It gives the ability to provide QoS through traffic engineering, and scales well to fulfil fast handover performance. Based on the proposed architecture, we also present a location update optimization method.