A Dynamic Protocol for Candidate Access-Router Discovery
Nokia Research Center
Many protocols currently being developed for seamless IP-level handovers, such as fast handovers and context transfers, possess an inherent requirement that the mobile node and/or it's current access router have a priori knowledge concerning the target of the handover. In particular, the target access router (TAR) should be known to have the appropriate set of capabilities necessary to meet the requirements of the mobile node. Although the TAR selection process occurs at or near the time of handover, applicable candidate access routers (CARs) can be identified in advance. In this draft, we propose a dynamic, distributed protocol, dyCARD, which allows geographically adjacent routers to exchange capability information, thus providing critical information to the target selection process.