SAMP: scalable application-layer mobility protocol

Abstract

As wireless/mobile technologies evolve, the market for mobile Internet is rapidly growing. To proliferate mobile Internet market, scalable mobility support is a key question. In this article, we propose a scalable application-layer mobility protocol (SAMP) that is based on peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay networking and session initiation protocol (SIP). SAMP keeps track of locations of mobile nodes leveraging SIP mobility functions. In SAMP, all SIP servers form a P2P overlay network, which enables scalable, load balanced, and robust mobile Internet. In addition, two optimization techniques, hierarchical registration and two-tier caching schemes, are employed to localize signaling traffic for mobility and to reduce the session setup latency, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that SAMP is an attractive choice for scalable mobile Internet and its limitations such as long handoff and session setup latencies arc substantially mitigated by the optimization techniques