Network-based localized IP mobility management: Proxy Mobile IPv6 and current trends in standardization

IP mobility support has been a hot topic over the last years, recently fostered by the role of IP in the evolution of the 3G mobile communication networks. Standardization bodies, namely IETF, IEEE and 3GPP are working on different aspects of the mobility aiming at improving the mobility experience perceived by users. Traditional IP mobility support mechanisms, Mobile IPv4 or Mobile IPv6, are based on the operation of the terminal to keep ongoing sessions despite the movement. The current trend is towards network-based solutions where mobility support is based on network operation. Proxy Mobile IPv6 is a promising specification that allows network operators to provide localized mobility support without relying on mobility functionality or configuration present in the mobile nodes, which greatly eases the deployment of the solution. This paper presents Proxy Mobile IPv6 and the different extensions that are been considered by the standardization bodies to enhance the basic protocol with interesting features needed to offer a richer mobility experience, namely, flow mobility, multicast and network mobility support.European Community's Seventh Framework ProgramThe research leading to the results presented in this paper has received funding from the Spanish MICINN through the I-MOVING project (TEC2010-18907) and from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 258053 (MEDIEVAL project).Publicad