IEEE 802.11 WLANs (wireless LAN) are proliferating at an unprecedented rate. To realize the benefits of localized, high-bandwidth WLANs along with highly available, low bit-rate overlay WWANs (wireless WAN), mobile hosts (MH), such as laptops and PDAs, are being equipped with multiple wireless network interface cards (NIC). This enables a mobile user to switch to a WLAN, if available, and then switch back to the overlay WWAN upon moving out of WLAN coverage. Consequently, also growing strongly is the desire to develop a capability to monitor, trouble-shoot and manage these complex devices over-the-air. However, a key requirement for an effective MH management system is not only to undertake the conventional device management tasks but also have the ability to track MHs switching between WLAN and WWAN networks. We present a novel MH management scheme that uses SNMP (simple network management protocol) to address the requirements. An SNMP agent is installed on each MH along with an appropriate MIB (management information base). The mobiles are then managed by a centralized SNMP manager. The mobility within the WWAN is left to the native mobility management procedures of the WWAN whereas the mode-switching between WWAN and WLAN is notified to the SNMP manager through SNMP traps. The proposed scheme is a simple yet effective solution to compliment the conventional MH management functionality with the ability to support mobility management in a multi-mode wireless overlay environment, without imposing unnecessary overheads such as mobile IP, external proxies or alterations to the protocol stacks.
[1]
Sajal K. Das,et al.
Mobility-adaptive protocols for managing large ad hoc networks
,
2001,
ICC 2001. IEEE International Conference on Communications. Conference Record (Cat. No.01CH37240).
[2]
Randy H. Katz,et al.
Vertical handoffs in wireless overlay networks
,
1998,
Mob. Networks Appl..
[3]
B. Vaillant,et al.
APSSNMP as a protocol for managing network appliances
,
2002,
Proceedings 2002 IEEE 4th International Workshop on Networked Appliances (Cat. No.02EX525).
[4]
Antonio Alfredo Ferreira Loureiro,et al.
Adapting SNMPv3 for mobile computing
,
1999,
WCNC. 1999 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (Cat. No.99TH8466).
[5]
Wenli Chen,et al.
ANMP: ad hoc network management protocol
,
1999,
IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..
[6]
Charles E. Perkins,et al.
Mobility support in IPv6
,
1996,
MobiCom '96.
[7]
Kyung Su Park,et al.
Performance analysis of the network management protocol in the CDMA PCS network
,
1997,
GLOBECOM 97. IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference. Conference Record.
[8]
Kaveh Pahlavan,et al.
Handoff in hybrid mobile data networks
,
2000,
IEEE Wirel. Commun..
[9]
Golden G. Richard,et al.
An architecture for wireless LAN/WAN integration
,
2000,
2000 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference. Conference Record (Cat. No.00TH8540).