A cross-layer mobility handover scheme for IPv6-based vehicular networks

This paper proposes a cross-layer mobility handover scheme for IPv6-based vehicular networks. In this scheme, the architecture for vehicular networks is proposed and it is made up of three hierarchies including road domains, road segments and clusters. A vehicular network is made up of multiple road domains, a road domain consists of multiple road segments, and a road segment includes multiple clusters. Based on this architecture, the cluster generation algorithm based on the link duration time is proposed, and the cross-layer mobility handover algorithm is presented. In the handover algorithm, the handover in the network layer (L3) is launched before the one in the link layer (L2). Through the L3 handover process the information on the L2 handover can be acquired in order to achieve the fast L2 handover. Moreover, during the L3 handover process, a vehicle does not need to be configured with a care-of address, so the L3 handover delay and packet loss are reduced. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated, and the data results show that this scheme shortens the handover delay and lowers the packet loss rate.