NEtwork MObility (NEMO) support in interworking heterogeneous mobile networks

With the expansion of the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN), ubiquitous service access is increasingly becoming a reality. As a result, an increasing number of users are accessing applications and services while travelling, especially on public transportation systems, thus giving rise to group mobility scenarios. Therefore, it is essential for the NGMN to be equipped with group mobility management support for achieving seamless session handoffs for a group of users or devices moving together. For a group of members moving between two networks, location transition management was initially addressed in the Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) NEtwork MObility (NEMO) basic support protocol. However, the two networks in this case are homogeneous in nature. This paper proposes the integration of NEMO support for an NGMN architecture for enabling group mobility management between multiple heterogeneous networks. Results and analysis illustrate that by integrating NEMO support to an NGMN reduces handoff latency, transient packet loss, jitter, and signaling cost for both end users and service providers.