How much do we gain by introducing route optimization in Proxy Mobile IPv6 networks?

Proxy Mobile IPv6 has been developed from the concept of network-based mobility support protocol in the Internet Engineering Task Force. The recently published specification of Proxy Mobile IPv6 only focuses on the mobility support without a mobile host’s participation in the mobility signaling. Then, route optimization issues are left in the basket for further works. In this paper, we explore the existing route optimization proposals that are analyzed and matched against a list of functional and operational angles. Then, the chosen two route optimization proposals are evaluated in terms of signaling cost, packet delivery cost, total cost, and service blocking probability. Through the provided analysis results, we demonstrate that route optimization solves the ineffective routing path problem when the mobile host communicates with its corresponding host and argue that the scalability of Proxy Mobile IPv6 architecture is also improved due to the distributed routing path. In addition, the cost model developed in this paper would be a reference model in order to facilitate decision making for further route optimization design.