Efficient DECT-mobile IP interworking for mobile computing

Abstract

Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) [1] is a general radio access technology, which supports local-area mobility only. The interconnection of DECT to Internet is inadequate to support wide-area mobility because IP [2] does not support host mobility between different subnetworks (subnets). This paper describes the interworking of DECT with Mobile IP [3] to support subnet-level mobility, while DECT is employed for user mobility within a subnet. To achieve an efficient interworking, we exploit and take advantage of the mobility features of DECT, which offers faster convergence and far fewer overheads. Hence, the Mobile IP handover latency can be reduced to improve the performance of transport protocols (e.g., TCP). We define the necessary protocol signalling for the DECT-Mobile IP interworking mobility management procedures, which require no modification to both DECT and Mobile IP.