NBA: A name-based approach to device mobility in industrial IoT networks

Many emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications involve the use of mobile devices. These devices require to attach to new access points as they move. However, the Internet protocol addressing scheme expects network nodes to be static and use a single interface. As a result, mobile devices typically cannot switch from one interface to another, which in turn deteriorates the network performance in terms of packet loss and delay. In this paper we propose a name-based approach (NBA) that enables devices to communicate with dynamically-changing IP addresses. Based on the end-to-end principle, a device can move an existing connection from one interface to another without requiring any new infrastructure. We show how NBA intrinsically supports mobility and how the existing infrastructure is sufficient to provide the necessary signaling. We implement NBA and build testbeds to evaluate its performance. Results show that NBA achieves fast and reliable mobility and promises data delivery performance.

Automated summary

The study proposed a name-based approach (NBA) that enables communication with dynamically-changing IP addresses for mobile devices, supporting mobility without requiring additional infrastructure and maintaining data delivery performance.