Network-Based Micro-Mobility in Wireless Mesh Networks: Is MPLS Convenient?

The paper reports an analysis about the convenience of employing Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) to provide mobility in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). In such networks, which are expected to serve a considerable number of mobile users, the efficient support of mobility is a non-trivial issue. The starting point of our work is Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6), a standardised network-based protocol for localised mobility management that has already shown good performance. We analyse and compare PMIPv6 with a recently proposed extension that aims at employing MPLS tunnels in place of IPv6 tunnels. Our contribution is novel in two aspects. First, the analysis focuses on a recent application scenario (the WMN) and accounts for its typical features. Second, we investigate a non-standard use of MPLS (i.e. for micro-mobility management) and provide the first evaluation work of the MPLS tunnel for PMIPv6 technique.