5th International ICST Conference on Testbeds and Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities

Research Article

On SCTP Multihoming Performance in Native IPv6 UMTS–WLAN Environments

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/TRIDENTCOM.2009.4976216,
        author={L\^{a}szl\^{o} Bokor and \^{A}rp\^{a}d Husz\^{a}k and G\^{a}bor Jeney},
        title={On SCTP Multihoming Performance in Native IPv6 UMTS--WLAN Environments},
        proceedings={5th International ICST Conference on Testbeds and  Research Infrastructures for the Development of Networks and Communities},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={TRIDENTCOM},
        year={2009},
        month={5},
        keywords={IPv6  SCTP  UMTS  WLAN  heterogeneous environment  multihoming  performance evaluation  testbed  transport layer mobility  vertical handover},
        doi={10.1109/TRIDENTCOM.2009.4976216}
    }
    
  • László Bokor
    Árpád Huszák
    Gábor Jeney
    Year: 2009
    On SCTP Multihoming Performance in Native IPv6 UMTS–WLAN Environments
    TRIDENTCOM
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/TRIDENTCOM.2009.4976216
László Bokor1,*, Árpád Huszák1,*, Gábor Jeney1,*
  • 1: Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Telecommunications Magyar Tudósok krt.2., H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
*Contact email: bokorl@hit.bme.hu, huszak@hit.bme.hu, jeneyg@hit.bme.hu

Abstract

Multihoming is one of the most attractive features of SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) aiming to make this prosperous transport scheme competitive in mobile environments when the mobile hosts are equipped with multiple interfaces. The complementary characteristic of the 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) architectures motivates operators to integrate these two successful technologies. Recently spreading wireless devices are increasingly provided with multiple networking interfaces such enabling end-users to access Internet services using e.g. the WLAN’s higher bandwidth wherever available, and connecting to the UMTS network in other cases. This paper investigates the performance of multihomed SCTP hosts through extensive experimental studies in such an integrated heterogeneous environment. In order to do this we designed and implemented a real native IPv6 UMTS–WLAN testbed equipped with novel IPv6-based mobile technologies, such providing ideal conditions for SCTP multihoming performance analysis. In this testbed architecture we analyzed numerous settings to measure the handover behavior of the protocol in terms of handover effectiveness, link changeover characteristics, throughput and transmission delay. As our results show, accurate SCTP parameter setup can significantly decrease the handover delay and eliminate the data transmission interrupts.