Need for Mobile IP

The IP addresses are designed to work with stationary hosts because part of the address defines the network to which the host is attached. A host cannot change its IP address without terminating on-going sessions and restarting them after it acquires a new address. Other link layer mobility solutions exist but are not sufficient enough for the global Internet

Quick Solution
Changing of IP address
Use DHCP to have a new IP address when mobile device moves to a new subnet, but then the new address may not be known to anyone Take help of DNS to update the entry, but DNS updates take long time TCP connections break security problems change routing table entries as the Mobile Node moves from one network to another does not scale with the number of mobile hosts and frequent changes in the location security problems

Changing entries in routing tables

Need for Mobile IP

Mobility is the ability of a node to change its point-of-attachment while maintaining all existing communications and using the same IP address. Nomadicity allows a node to move but it must terminate all existing communications and then can initiate new connections with a new address.

Mobile IP

Mobile IP is a network layer solution for homogenous and heterogeneous mobility on the global Internet which is scalable, robust, secure and which allows nodes to maintain all ongoing communications while moving

Design Goals

Mobile IP was developed as a means for transparently dealing with problems of mobile users. Mobile IP was designed to make the size and the frequency of required routing updates as small as possible. It was designed to make it simple to implement mobile node software. It was designed to avoid solutions that require mobile nodes to use multiple addresses.

Requirements for Mobile IP

Requirements: There are several requirements for Mobile IP to make it as a standard Some of them are 1. Compatibility 2. Transparency 3. Scalability and efficiency 4. Security

the existing operating systems. Compatibility Also, for routers it may be possible to enhance its capabilities to support mobility instead of changing the routers which is highly impossible. Finally, end-systems enhanced with a mobile IP implementation should still be able to communicate with fixed systems without mobile IP

Transparency: Mobility remains invisible for many higher layer protocols and applications. Higher layers continue to work even if the mobile computer has changed its point of attachment to the network and even notice a lower bandwidth and some interruption in the service. As many of todays applications have not been designed to use in mobile environments, the effects of mobility will be higher delay and lower bandwidth

Scalability and efficiency:

The efficiency of the network should not be affected even if a new mechanism is introduced into the internet. Enhancing IP for mobility must not generate many new messages flooding the whole network. Special care is necessary to be taken considering the lower bandwidth of wireless links.

Security: Mobility possesses many security problems. A minimum requirement is the authentication of all messages related to the management of mobile IP. It must be sure for the IP layer if it forwards a packet to a mobile host that this host really is the receiver of the packet. The IP layer can only guarantee that the IP address of the receiver is correct. There is no way to prevent faked IP addresses

The goal of a mobile IP can be summarized as: supporting end-system mobility while maintaining scalability, efficiency, and compatibility in all respects with existing applications and Internet protocols.

Entities and terminology

Mobile Node (MN) - is an end-system that can change the point of connection to the network without changing its IP address Home Network (HN) is the subnet the MN belongs to with respect to its IP address. Foreign Network (FA) is the current subnet the MN visits. Correspondent Node (CN) is a fixed or Mobile Node act as partner for communication with MN. Care-of Address (COA) address of the current tunnel end-point for the MN (at FA or MN) actual location of the MN from an IP point of view can be chosen, e.g., via DHCP Home Agent (HA) Is a system (or router) located in the home network of the MN, registers the location of the MN, then tunnels IP datagrams to the COA Foreign Agent (FA) system in the current foreign network of the MN, typically a router typically the default router for the MN

Mobility: Vocabulary
home network: permanent home visited network: network in of mobile home agent: entity that which mobile currently (e.g., 128.119.40/24) will perform mobility resides (e.g., 79.129.13/24) functions on behalf of mobile, when mobile is remote Permanent address: remains constant (e.g.,
128.119.40.186)

Permanent address: address in home network, can always be used to reach mobile
e.g., 128.119.40.186

wide area network

Care-of-address: address in visited network.

(e.g., 79,129.13.2)

correspondent: wants to communicate with mobile

Foreign agent: entity in visited network that performs mobility functions on behalf of mobile.

Data Transfer or IP Packet Delivery

Step 1: CN send the packet as usual to the IP address of MN. Step 2: The HA intercepts the packet and the forwarded into the

subnet as usual, but encapsulated and tunneled to the COA. Step 3: The FA now decapsulates the packet and forwards the original packet with CN as source and MN as destination to the MN Step 4: The MN sends the packet as usual with its own fixed IP address as source and CNs address as the destination.

Three Phases
To communicate with a remote host, a mobile host goes through three phases: agent discovery, registration, and data transfer.

Agent Discovery A mobile node has to find a foreign agent when it moves away from its home network. To solve this problem, mobile IP describes two methods: agent advertisement and agent solicitation.

Agent advertisement For this method, foreign agents and home agents advertise their presence periodically using special agent advertisement messages, which are broadcast into the subnet. Mobile IP does not use a new packet type for agent advertisement; it uses the router advertisement packet of ICMP, and appends an agent advertisement message. The agent advertisement packet according to RFC 1256 with the extension for mobility is shown in next slide

The TTL field of the IP packet is set to 1 for all advertisements to avoid forwarding them.

The type is set to 9, the code can be 0, if the agent also routes traffic from non-mobile nodes 16, if it does not route anything other than mobile traffic.

The number of addresses advertised with this packet is in #addresses Lifetime denotes the length of time this advertisement is valid. Preference levels for each address help a node to choose the router that is the most eager one to get a new node

The extension for mobility has the following fields defined: type is set to 16 means Mobility Agent Advertisement Length depends on the number of COAs provided with the message The sequence number shows the total number of advertisements sent since initialization by the agent. By the registration lifetime the agent can specify the maximum lifetime in seconds a node can request during registration

The R bit (registration) shows, if a registration with this agent is required even when using a colocated COA at the MN. If the agent is currently too busy to accept new registrations it can set the B bit The following two bits denote if the agent offers services as a home agent (H) or foreign agent (F) on the link where the advertisement has been sent. Bits M and G specify the method of encapsulation used for the tunnel. While IP-inIP encapsulation is the mandatory standard, M can specify minimal encapsulation and G generic routing encapsulation

In the first version of mobile IP (RFC 2002) the V bit specified the use of header compression according to RFC 1144. Now the field r at the same bit position is set to zero and must be ignored. The new field T indicates that reverse tunneling is supported by the FA. The following fields contain the COAs advertised. A foreign agent setting the F bit must advertise at least one COA. A mobile node in a subnet can now receive agent advertisements from either its home agent or a foreign agent. This is one way for the MN to discover its location

Agent Solicitation If no agent advertisements are present or the inter-arrival time is too high, and MN has not received a COA by other means, the mobile node must send agent solicitations. Care must be taken to ensure that these solicitation messages do not flood the network, but basically a MN can search for a FA endlessly sending out solicitation messages.

If a node does not receive an answer to its solicitations it must decrease the rate of solicitations exponentially to avoid flooding the network until it reaches a maximum interval between solicitations (typically one minute). Discovering a new agent can be done anytime, not just if the MN is not connected to one. After these steps of advertisements or solicitations the MN can now receive a COA, either one for an FA or a co-located COA