M&M's: an MPLS micro-mobility solution

Abstract

Wireless communication brings fundamental changes to data networking and telecommunications, and makes the necessity of integrated networks a reality. Originally, the TCP/IP protocol suite was not designed to support mobile nodes. Typically, each host is assigned a unique address that also provides routing information to this host assuming its location is fixed. Therefore, the IP protocol should be augmented with a mobility management mechanism for delivering datagrams to their destination hosts independent of their locations. As a significant number of Internet service provider and network operator are migrating towards MPLS, MPLS seems to be a promising solution for next mobile generation networks. In fact, MPLS combines the speed and performance of layer 2 with the scalability and IP intelligence of layer 3. In this paper, an integration framework for 4G network using MPLS as the underlying technology is developed. M&M's will provide an excellent way of designing high performance QoS guaranteed networks.