Abstract-The separation of host identifier (ID) and locator (LOC) is essential to support mobile environments in a permanent manner. Two up-to-date protocols, mobile oriented future internet (MOFI) and network-based host identifier locator separating protocol (NHILS), are ID/LOC separation architectures by using a distributed hash table. MOFI is a host-based mobility protocol and operates over traditional network environments, whereas NHILS is a network-based protocol and operates in software defined networks (SDN). In this paper, we present the cost model of each MOFI and NHILS, and conduct performance analysis for comparison. From numerical results, impact factors are confirmed in terms of signaling and data delivery, and the advantages and disadvantages of each protocol are produced. In addition, we explain the effect of adopting SDN on cost.Index Terms-Identifier locator separation, MOFI, NHILS, performance analysis, software defined networks. I. INTRODUCTIONAs mobile devices become popular, the mobility support is an essential part of the future Internet. The overloaded meanings of IP address as both host ID and LOC are a huge obstacle that has to be surmounted. Some researches about a protocol were conducted to address this problem in terms of mobility management and separation of ID and LOC. Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) [1] which belongs to the former is a temporal measure to support mobility over existing IP stacks. The Host Identity Protocol (HIP) [2] and the Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) [3] are affiliated with the latter. Although they separate ID and LOC in the network layer, mapping information is maintained by a centralized manner such as a Rendezvous Sever or a Map Server. Centralization cannot guarantee continuous service due to a single point failure problem. Mobile-Oriented Future Internet (MOFI) [4] and Network-based Host Identifier Locator Separating Protocol (NHILS) [5] solve this problem by adopting the mapping system based on a Distributed Hash Table (DHT). MOFI is a state-of-art architecture designed with three key features, Global ID and Local LOC (GILL), Query-First Data Delivery (QFDD), and Distributed ID-LOC Mapping System (DMS). Each host has a globally unique ID for end-to-end communication and a local IP address used for packet Manuscript received December 9, 2014; revised June 12, 2015. This research was supported by Korea University.Bong-Jung Yoon, Seong-Mun Kim, and Sung-Gi Min are with the Department of Computer and Radio Communication Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea (e-mail: {bjyoon, soulcrime, sgmin}@korea.ac.kr).delivery. To forward packets to a direct route, the LOC query is performed first before data packet is sent. And ID-LOC mapping information is maintained by caches in each access router (AR). But, the MOFI protocol stack has to be installed on a host and encapsulation is required to deliver packets.NHILS operates over Software Defined Networks (SDN) [6] which makes network environments more flexible by separating control plane from data pla...