Abstract
Handovermanagementisoneofthemostcriticalissuesthatmobility management protocolsareconcernedwith.Thisprocessbecomesevenmorecriticalinthecaseof Micro-mobilitywheretheMobilehostisexpectedto encounterfrequenthandovers. SeveralIPmicro-mobilityprotocolshavebeenproposedtoenhancetheperformanceof MobileIPinanenvironmentwithfrequenthandoffs.Inthispaperwemakeadetails studyofhowtheperformance ofthehandoffschemesoftwocandidates for micro-mobility protocols, namely HAWAII and Cellular IP. The aim of the paper is to investigatetheimpactofhandoffsonTCPbymeansofsimulationtracesthatshowthe evolution of segments and acknowledgments during handoffs. Application of these modelsallowsacomparisonof two importanthandoffschemes:theMultipleStream ForwardingschemeofHAWAIIandtheSemi-softHandoffschemeofCellularIP