The impact of network topology on the performance of MAP selection algorithms

The performance of the Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) protocol is affected by the Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) selection. Many MAP selection algorithms have been proposed. Researchers have based their algorithms on different operating principles, movement patterns and evaluation metrics, while the network topology model has remained essentially the same – a simple tree. Our study abolishes this restriction by expanding the research to different types of topologies. They are compared both analytically and by simulation. The results show that trees differ from other topologies in an important aspect. They do not allow the simultaneous reduction of average distance from Mobile Node (MN) to MAP and frequency of MAP changes. As a consequence, widely accepted cost functions can only be reduced by careful consideration of user-specific parameters such as speed and communication activity. We show that in other topologies, including internet models, there is no such limitation. The paper also analyses the topology characteristics that are beneficial to MAP selection, leading to simultaneous reduction of MAP distances and frequency of MAP changes. The demonstrated characteristics are verified by simulations of topology evolution.