Tested Evaluation of Fast and Secure Handover in FMIPv6

In next generation all-IP based networks, a large number of mobile nodes are expected to use MIPv6 protocol for mobility. In mobile environment one frequent cause of service disruption is handovers. When MN moves, at some point MN will reach the physical border of its current wireless n etwork and will enter an area covered by another wireless network. In such a situation, MN must switch to the new wireless netwo rk by handover. Fast handover for MIPv6 (FMIPv6) has been developed as an extension protocol to reduce the handover lat ency and packet loss inherent with MIPv6. The RFC4068 for FMIPv6 is categorized as "Experimental" by IETF because it is not in comp liance with MIPv6 standard. One major compliance issue is that MIPv6 requires that all the messages exchanged between MN and HA should be secured. Adding security mechanism to MIPv6 without significant delay to the overall protocol performan ce is a challenge itself and it is recognized by IETF's "mishop" work ing group. This paper presents a modified FMIPv6 which has the security mechanism in-line with the MIPv6 standard. The proposed FMIPv6 protocol is secured without introducing any signifi cant handover latency reduction. This work was part of FP6 projec t ENABLE, and the actual testbed was presented in projects final demonstration meeting at Telecom Italia (T.I.) Labs in Turino.