Multicast Listener Extensions for MIPv6 and PMIPv6 Fast Handovers

Abstract

Fast handover protocols for MIPv6 and PMIPv6 define mobility management procedures that support unicast communication at reduced handover latencies. Fast handover base operations do not affect multicast communication, and hence do not accelerate handover management for native multicast listeners. Many multicast applications like IPTV or conferencing, though, are comprised of delay-sensitive real-time traffic and could strongly benefit from fast handover execution. This document specifies extension of the Mobile IPv6 Fast Handovers (FMIPv6) and the Fast Handovers for Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PFMIPv6) protocols to include multicast traffic management in fast handover operations. This multicast support is provided first at the control plane by a management of rapid context transfer between access routers, second at the data plane by an optional fast traffic forwarding that MAY include buffering.