Optimizing metropolitan area wireless path selection using Media Independent Handover

The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) is a transport layer protocol which can support mobility through its multi-homing feature. SCTP's mobility support can be subdivided into 2 areas: path performance evaluation and switch implementation. As a transport layer protocol, SCTP's path performance evaluation is limited by its end-to-end network view. In modern heterogeneous networks, it is likely that the wireless access element of an end-to-end association is the point of performance degradation. SCTP's adherence to protocol boundaries abstracts the precision and meaning of performance metrics. In this paper, we analyze how the emerging cross layer switch management approach, Media Independent Handover (MIH), can be used to optimize path selection for metropolitan area wireless broadband networks. In such an environment line of sight can easily be obstructed, causing temporary path communication failure. We analyze the effectiveness of using Received Signal Strength (RSS) as a performance metric in order to trigger path migration through MIH Link Going Down events. Results are presented which illustrate that our MIH based approach has significant performance improvement over standard SCTP strategies.