CHAPTER 4

Emerging Technologies

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter however, will we discuss some technologies which are not yet in
the mainstream but are potential candidates for the same.

These technologies are included here to make the mobile computing story
complete. These include technologies like Bluetooth (802.15.1a), Radio
frequency identifier (RFID), Wireless metropolitan area network or Wireless
broadband(WiMax-802.16), Mobile IP, IPv6, and Java Card. Bluetooth is a
technology in the personal area network (PAN). RFID is emerging as a leading
technology in the logistics, manufacturing, and retail industry. Wireless
broadband is expected to be a mainstream technology very soon. Mobile IP
allows data handoff over different sub-networks. IPv6 is the next genera-
tion internet protocol. Java Card technology is emerging as a forerunner in the
security and personal identity domain. Therefore, we introduce all these
technologies in this chapter.

4.2 BLUETOOTH

Bluetooth was the nickname of a Danish king Harald Blatand, who unified
Denmark and Norway in the 10th century. The concept behind Bluetooth
wireless technology was unifying the telecom and computing industries.
Bluetooth technology allows users to make ad hoc wireless connections
between devices like mobile phones, desktop or notebook computers without
any cable. Devices carrying Bluetooth-enabled chips can easily trans-
fer data at a speed of about 1Mbps within 50 meters (150 feet) of range or
beyond through walls, clothing and even luggage bags.
4.2.1 Bluetooth Protocol

The Bluetooth radio is built into a small microchip and operates in a globally available

frequency band ensuring interoperability worldwide. Bluetooth uses the unlicensed 2.4

GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical) frequency band. There are 79 available
Bluetooth channels spaced 1 MHz apart from 2.402 GHz to 2.480 GHz. The Bluetooth

standard is managed and maintained by Bluetooth Special Interest Group (www.blue-

tooth.com). IEEE has also adapted Bluetooth as the 802.15.1a standard. Bluetooth allows
power levels starting from 1mW covering 10cm to 100mW covering upto 100 meters.
These power levels are suitable for short device zone to personal area networks within a
home. Bluetooth supports both unicast (point-to-point) and multicast (point-to-multi-
point) connections. Bluetooth protocol uses the concept of master and slave. In a mas-
ter-slave protocol a device cannot talk as and when they desire. They need to wait till the
time the master allows them to talk. The master and slaves together form a piconet. Up
to seven 'slave' devices can be set to communicate with a 'master'. Several of these
piconets can be linked together to form a larger network in an ad hoc manner. The
topology can be thought as a flexible, multiple piconet structure. This network of
piconets is called scatternet (Figure 4.1). A scatternet is formed when a device from
one piconet also acts as a member of another piconet. In this scheme, a device being
master in one piconet can simultaneously be a slave in the other one.
Bluetooth protocol is a combination of different protocols. The Bluetooth Core protocols
plus the Bluetooth radio protocols are required by most of Bluetooth devices, while
the rest of the protocols are used by different applications as needed. At the physical
layer Bluetooth uses spread spectrum technologies. It uses both direct sequence and
frequency hopping spread spectrum technologies. Bluetooth uses connectionless
(ACL—Asynchronous Connectionless Link) and connection-oriented (SCO—Synchro-
nous Connection-oriented Link) links. Together, the Cable Replacement layer, the
Telephony Control layer, and the Adopted protocol layer form application-oriented
protocols enabling applications to run over the Bluetooth Core protocols.

4.2.2 Bluetooth Protocol Stack

Bluetooth protocol stack can be thought of combination of multiple application specific

stacks as depicted in Figure 4.2. Different applications run over one or more vertical slices
from this protocol stack. These are RFCOMM (Radio Frequency COMMunication),
TCS Binary (Telephony Control Specification), and SDP (Service Discovery Protocol).
Each application environments use a common data link and physical layer. RFCOMM
and the TCS binary (Telephony Control Specification) protocol are based on the ETSI
TS 07.10 and the ITU-T Recommendation Q931 respectively. Some applications have
some relationship with other protocols, e.g., L2CAP (Logical Link Control and
Adaptation Protocol) or TCS may use LMP (Link Manager Protocol) to control the link
manager.

Bluetooth protocol stack can be divided into four basic layers according to their func-
tions. These are:

• Bluetooth Core Protocols this comprises of Baseband, Link Manager Protocol

(LMP), Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), and Service
Discovery Protocol (SDP).
o Baseband The Baseband and Link Control layer enables the physical
RF link between Bluetooth units forming a piconet. This layer uses inquiry
and paging procedures to synchronize the transmission with different
Bluetooth devices. Using SCO and ACL link different packets can be multi-
plexed over the same RF link. ACL packets are used for data only, while
the SCO packet can contain audio only or a combination of audio and data.
All audio and data packets can be provided with different levels of CRC
(Cyclic Redundancy Code) or FEC (Forward Error Correction) for error detec-
tion/correction.

Link Manager Protocol (LMP) When two Bluetooth devices come within
each other's radio range, link managers of either device discover each other.
LMP then engages itself in peer-to-peer message exchange. These messages
perform various security functions starting from authentication to encryption.
LMP layer performs generation and exchange of encryption keys as well. This
layer performs the link setup and negotiation of baseband packet size. LMP
also controls the power modes, connection state, and duty cycles of Bluetooth
devices in a piconet.

o Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) this layer is

responsible for segmentation of large packets and the reassembly of frag-

mented packets. L2CAP is also responsible for multiplexing of Bluetooth pack-
ets from different applications.

Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) The Service Discovery Protocol

SDP)enables a Bluetooth device to join a piconet. Using SDP a device
inquires
what services are available in a piconet and how to access them. SDP uses a client-
server model where the server has a list of services defined through service records. One
service record in a server describes the characteristics of one service. In a Bluetooth
device there can be only one SDP server. If a device provides multiple services, one SDP
server acts on behalf of all of them. Similarly multiple applications in a device may use a
single SDP client to query servers for service records. A Bluetooth device in an inquiry
mode broadcasts ID packets on 32 frequency channels of the Inquiry Hopping Sequence. It
sends two ID packets every 625 µs and then listens for responses the following 625 µs . At
this stage the unique identity of the devices called Bluetooth global ID is exchanged. A
global ID indicates a device's profile along with capability functions. Upon match-
ing of the device profile a connection is set up and devices exchange data. When a
connection is set up, the paging device becomes the master and the paged device
becomes the slave. A Bluetooth device may operate both as a server and as a client at the
same time forming a scattemet. They can also switch from mas-
ter to slave and vice versa. The master slave switch can take between 4:375 and 41:875
ms. In a piconet, a master device can be a laptop or PDA, while slaves devices could be
printers, mouse, cellular phones etc.

• Cable Replacement Protocol this protocol stack has only one member viz.,
Radio Frequency Communication (RFCOMM).

o RFCOMM this is a serial line communication protocol and is based on ETSI

07.10 specification. The "cable replacement" protocol emulates RS-232 control and data
signals over Bluetooth baseband protocol.

• Telephony Control Protocol this comprises of two protocol stacks viz.,

Telephony Control Specification Binary (TCS BIN), and the AT-Commands.

o Telephony Control protocol Binary TCS Binary or TCS BIN is a bit-ori-

ented protocol. TCS BIN defines the call control signaling protocol for set up
of speech and data calls between Bluetooth devices. It also defines mobility
management procedures for handling groups of Bluetooth TCS devices. TCS
Binary is based on the ITU-T Recommendation Q931.

o AT-Commands this protocol defines a set of AT-commands by which a

mobile phone can be used and controlled as a modem for fax and data trans-
fers. AT (short form of attention) commands are used from a computer or DTE
(Data Terminal Equipment) to control a modem or DCE (Data Circuit
terminating Equipment). AT-commands in Bluetooth are based on ITU-T
Recommendation V.250 and GSM 07.07.

• Adopted Protocols This has many protocol stacks like Point-to-Point

Protocol (PPP), TCP/IP Protocol, OBEX (Object Exchange Protocol), Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP), vCard, vCalendar, Infrared Mobile Communication
(IrMC), etc.

o PPP Bluetooth offers PPP over RFCOMM to accomplish point-to-point con-

nections. Point-to-Point Protocol is the means of taking IP packets to/from the
PPP layer and placing them onto the LAN.

o TCP/IP Protocol is used for communication across the Internet. TCP/IP

stacks are used in numerous devices including printers, handheld computers,
and mobile handsets. Access to these protocols is operating system independ-
ent, although traditionally realized using a socket programming interface
model. TCP/IP/PPP is used for the all Internet Bridge usage scenarios.
UDP/IP/PPP is also available as transport for WAP.

o OBEX Protocol OBEX is a session protocol developed by the Infrared

Data Association (IrDA) to exchange objects. OBEX, provides the functional-
ity of HTTP in a much lighter fashion. The OB EX protocol defines a folder-
listing object, which can be used to browse the contents of folders on remote
devices.

o Content Formats vCard and vCalendar specifications define the format of an

electronic business card and personal calendar entries developed by the Versit
consortium, These are now maintained by the Internet Mail Consortium.
Other content formats, supported by OBEX, are vMessage and vNote. These
content formats are used to exchange messages and notes. They are defined in
the IrMC (IrDA Mobile Communication) specification. IrMC also defines a
format for synchronization of data between devices.

4.2.3 Bluetooth Security

In a wireless environment where every bit is on the air, security concerns are high.
Bluetooth offers security infrastructure starting from authentication, key exchange, to
encryption. In addition to encryption, a frequency-hopping scheme with 1600 hops/sec
is employed. All of this make the system difficult to eavesdrop. At the lowest levels
of the protocol stack, Bluetooth uses the publicly available cipher algorithm known as
SAFER+ to authenticate a device's identity. In addition to these basic security functions,
different application verticals use their own security infrastructure at the application
layer.

4.2.4 Bluetooth Application Models

Each application model in Bluetooth is realized through a Profile. Profiles define the pro-
tools and protocol features supporting a particular usage model.

• File Transfer The file transfer usage model offers the ability to transfer data
objects from one device (e.g., PC, smart-phone, or PDA) to another. Object types
include ids, .ppt, .wav, .jpg,.doc files, folders or directories or streaming media
formats. Also, this model offers a possibility to browse the contents of the folders
on a remote device.

• Internet Bridge In this usage model, mobile phone or cordless modem acts as
modem to the PC, providing dial-up networking and fax capabilities without need
for physical connection to the PC.

• LAN Access In this usage model multiple data terminals use a LAN access point
(LAP) as a wireless connection to an Ethernet LAN. Once connected, the termi-
nals operate as if they were connected directly to the LAN.

• Synchronization The synchronization usage model provides a device-to-device

(phone, PDA, computer, etc.) synchronization of data. Examples could be PIM
(personal information management) information, typically phonebook, calendar,
message, and note information.

• Headset The headset can be wirelessly connected for the purpose of acting as a
remote device's audio input and output interface. This is very convenient for
hands free cellular phone usage in automobiles.

4.3 RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID)

RFID is a radio transponder carrying an ID (Identification) that can be read through radio
frequency (RE) interfaces. These transponders are commonly known as RFID tags or sim-
ply tags. To assign an identity to an object, a tag is attached to the object. Data within the
tag provides identification for the object. The object could be an entity in a manufactur-
ing shop, goods in transit, item in a retail store, a vehicle in a parking lot, a pet, or a book
in a library. Biologists had been using RFID for sometime to track animals for the pur-
pose of studying animal behavior and conservation. The earliest use of RFID was for
tracking farm animals. A RFID system comprises of different functional areas like:

1. Means of reading or interrogating the data in the tag

2. Mechanism to filter some of the data

3. Means to communicate the data in the tag with a host computer

4. Means for updating or entering customized data into the tag.

RFID tags are categorized on three basic criteria. These are based on frequency, appli-
cation area and the power level.

• On Frequency: There are 6 basic frequencies on which RFID operates. These

are 132.4 KHz, 13.56 MHz, 433 MHz, 918 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. Low-
frequency (30 KHz to 500 KHz) systems have short reading ranges and lower
system costs. Tags in this frequency range are slow in data transfer and suitable for
slow-moving objects. They are most commonly used in security access,
asset tracking and animal identification applications. High-frequency (850 MHz to 950
MHz and 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz) systems offer long read ranges and high data
transfer speeds. High reading speed is required for fast moving
objects like railway wagon tracking and identification of vehicles on freeways for
automated toll collection. The higher the frequency the higher the data transfer rates.

• On Application: RFIDs are also grouped according to application and usage.

Speed of the object and distance to read determines the type of tag to be
used. RFID used for livestock will be different from the tag used in railroad.
The significant advantage of all types of RFID systems is the contactless, non-
line-of-sight nature of the technology. Tags can be read through a variety of
substances such as snow, fog, paint, plastic, wall, container and other challeng-
ing conditions, where barcodes or other optical means of reading are not effec-
tive. RFID tags can also be read at high speeds. In these cases RFIDs can
respond within 100 milliseconds. A RFID tag contains two segments of memory.
One segment is a factory-set and used to uniquely identify a tag. The other
segment is usable by the application. Application specific data can be written or
stored in this portion of the tag. The read/write capability of a RFID system
is an advantage in interactive applications such as work-in-process or main-
tenance tracking. Compared to the barcode, RFID is a costlier technology.
However, RFID has become indispensable for a wide range of automated
data collection and identification applications that would not be possible
otherwise.

• Power-based grouping: RFIDs can be grouped into two types based on power
requirements. These are active and passive tags. Passive tags are generally in low
frequency range, whereas tags at higher frequency range can be either active or
passive.

• Active RFID tags: Active tags are powered by an internal battery and are typ-
ically read/write. The life of an active tag is limited by the life of the battery.
The data within an active tag can be rewritten or modified. An active tag's
memory can vary from a few bytes to 1MB. The battery-supplied power of an
active tag generally gives it a longer read range. The trade off is, greater the
size the greater cost, and a limited operational life. Depending upon the bat-
tery type and temperatures, the life of such tags could be 10 years. Some active
tags can also be smart and do not send their information all the time. In a typ-
ical read/write RFID system, a tag might give a machine a set of instructions,
and the machine would then report its performance to the tag. This encoded
data would then become part of the tagged part's history. This data can be
details about the port of transit with dates.

• Passive RFID tags: Passive tags operate without a power source of its own. A
passive tag obtains operating power from the reader's antenna. The data within
a passive tag is read only and generally cannot be changed during operation.
Passive tags are lighter, less expensive and offer a virtually unlimited opera-
tional lifetime. The trade off is that they have shorter read ranges than active
tags and require a higher-powered reader. Passive tags contain data usually 32
to 128 bits long.

RFID tags are of different shapes and sizes. Animal tracking tags are inserted
beneath the skin and are as small as a pencil lead. Tags can be screw-shaped to
identify trees or wooden logs. In stores, plastic tags are attached to
merchandise and used as anti-theft device. Heavy-duty large tags are used to
track containers or heavy machinery. The reader emits radio waves in any
range from one centimeter to 25 meters or more. When an RFID tag passes
through the electromagnetic zone of the reader, it detects the reader's
activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated
circuit and the data is passed to the host computer for processing. A basic RFID
system consist of three components:

es forming an integral feature in both tags and readers. While the term antenna is
generally considered more appropriate for propagating systems, it is also loosely
applied to inductive systems.

4.3.1 Areas of Application for RFID

Potential applications for RFID may be identified in virtually every sector of

industry, commerce and services where data is to be collected. The attributes
of RFID are complementary to other data-capture technologies and therefore
able to satisfy particular application requirements that cannot be adequately
accommodated by alternative technologies. Principal areas of application for
RFID that can be currently identified include:

• Transportation and Logistics

• Manufacturing and Processing

• Security

• Animal tagging

• Store in an enterprise

• Retail store

• Community library

• Time and attendance

• Postal tracking

• Airline baggage reconciliation

• Road toll management.

4.4 WIRELESS BROADBAND (WIMAX)

Wireless technologies are proliferating in a major way into the first-mile (as computer
people call it) or last-mile (as communication people call it) subscriber access, as opposed
to twisted-pair local loop. These technologies are generally referred to as (WLL—wireless
local loop) or WLL (wireless in local loop). Wireless local loop is also known as fixed-wire-
less system. The world is moving towards a convergence of voice, data and video. This
convergence will demand interoperability and high data rate. Keeping this in mind, the
IEEE 802 committee set up the 802.16 working group in 1999 to develop wireless broad-
band or Wireless MAN (wireless metropolitan area network) standards. Wireless MAN
offers an alternative to high bandwidth wireline access networks like fiber optic, cable
modems and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). Figure 4.4 depicts a Wireless MAN architecture.

The release of Wireless MAN (IEEE 802.16) standards in April 2002 has paved the way
for the entry of broadband wireless access as a new bearer to link homes and businesses with
core telecommunications networks. WirelessMAN provides network access to buildings
through exterior antennas communicating with radio base stations. The technology is

• IEEE 802.16.2—Coexistence of broadband wireless access systems.

• IEEE 802.16.3—Air interface for licensed frequencies, 2 to 11 GHz.

• Extensive radio spectrum is available in frequency bands from 10 to 66 GHz

worldwide. In a business scenario, 802.16 can serve as a backbone for 802.11

networks. Other possibilities are using 802.16 within the enterprise along with
802.11a, b or g.

IEEE 802.16 standards are concerned with the air interface between a subscriber's trans-
ceiver station and a base transceiver station. The 802.16 standards are organized into a
three-layer architecture.

• The physical layer: This layer specifies the frequency band, the modulation
scheme, error-correction techniques, synchronization between transmitter and
receiver, data rate and the multiplexing structure.

• The MAC (Media Access Control) layer: This layer is responsible for transmit-
ting data in frames and controlling access to the shared wireless medium through
media access control (MAC) layer. The MAC protocol defines how and when a
base station or subscriber station may initiate transmission on the channel.

• Above the MAC layer is a convergence layer that provides functions specific to
the service being provided. For IEEE 802.16.1, bearer services include digital
audio/video multicast, digital telephony, ATM, Internet access, wireless trunks in
telephone networks and frame relay.

4.4.1 Physical Layer

To support duplexing, 802.16 adapted a burst design that allows both time-division
duplexing (TDD) and frequency-division duplexing (FDD). In TDD the uplink and
downlink share a channel but do not transmit simultaneously. In the case of FDD the
uplink and downlink operate on separate channels and sometimes simultaneously.
Support for half-duplex FDD subscriber stations is also supported in 802.16. Both TDD
and FDD alternatives support adaptive burst profiles in which modulation and coding
options may be dynamically assigned on a burst-by-burst basis.

The 2-11 GHz bands, both licensed and unlicensed, are used in 802.16. Design of
the 2-11 GHz physical layer is driven by the need for non-line-of-sight operation. The
draft currently specifies that compliant systems implement one of three air interface
specifications, each of which provides for interoperability. The 802.16 standard
specifies three physical layers for services:

• WirelessMAN-SC2: This uses a single-carrier modulation format. This is to

sup-port existing networks and protocols.

• Wireless MAN-OFDM: This uses orthogonal frequency-division

multiplexing with a 256-point transform. Access is by TDMA. This air
interface mandatory for license-exempt bands.

• Wireless MAN-OFDMA: This uses orthogonal frequency-division

multiple access with a 2048-point transform. In this system, multiple access is
provided by addressing a sub-set of the multiple carriers to individual receivers.

4.4.2 802.16 Medium Access Control

The IEEE 802.16 MAC protocol was designed for point-to-multipoint

broadband wireless access. It addresses the need for very high bit rates, both
uplink (to the base station) and downlink (from the base station). To support, a
variety of services like multimedia and voice, the 802.16 MAC is equipped to
accommodate both continuous and bursty traffic. To facilitate the more
demanding physical environment and different service requirements of the
frequencies between 2 and 11 GHz, the 802.16 project is upgrading the MAC
to provide automatic repeat request (ARQ) and support for mesh, rather than
only point-to-multipoint, network architectures.

4.4.3 Broadband Applications

Wireless broadband allows higher data rates in homes and offices. Therefore,
all the user applications in home and offices are potential candidates for
wireless broadband. These include standards Ethernet LAN or WiFi.
However, along with the existing applications a new brand of applications are
also being thought about. One such system is mobile cellular system.

4.4.4 Broadband Mobile Cellular System

During different discussions on systems and architecture of mobile computing,

we talked about mobility with the network being static. In mobile cellular
system the cellular network itself will be mobile. A cellular system like 3G
can provide high data rate. Wireless MAN is also geared up to support high
data rate. However, these high data rates are possible with low speed mobility.
Scientists are now thinking in terms of high-speed mobility specially designed
for high-speed telematics application.

Figure 4.5 depicts one such mobile communication system to support high-
speed mobility. This is achieved by installing moving base stations and fixed
radio ports uniformly distributed along the median of the roadway. The
moving base stations allow communication links to be established between
the mobile units traveling on the roadway and a fixed communication network
through the fixed radio ports. The small-cell (picocell) architecture of the
proposed system enables the use of extremely lightweight low-power mobile
units that can be used almost anywhere. In this architecture the pico-
cell will move in the direction of the moving vehicle so that the relative speed
between them are low. This proposed infrastructure is suitable for high-speed
multilane highways in cities. The proposed system will be able to communicate to
devices traveling at speeds up to and in excess of 150 Kmph.
How does Mobile IP work?

IP routes packets from a source end point to a destination end point through
various routers. In addition to the IP addresses of the hosts, for a meaningful
communication we need the TCP or UDP (User Datagram Protocol) port of the
applications. The port number is used by the host to deliver the packet to the
appropriate application.

A TCP connection is identified by a quadruplet that contains the IP address

and port number of the sender endpoint along with the IP address and port
number of the receiving endpoint. To ensure that an active TCP connection is
not terminated while the user is mobile, it is essential that all of these four
identities remain constant. The TCP ports are application specific and
generally constant. However, the IP address changes from subnet to subnet.
Therefore, to fix this problem mobile IP allows the mobile node to use two IP
addresses. These IP addresses are called home address and care-of address. The
home address is static and known to everybody as the identity of the host.
The care-of address changes at each new point of attachment and can be
thought of as the mobile node's location specific address. This is similar to the
concept of HLR (Home Location Register) and VLR (Visitor Location
Register) in cellular networks. When the mobile node is roaming and is
attached to a foreign network, the home agent receives all the packets for the
mobile node and arranges to forward them to the mobile node's current point of
attachment. The network node that is responsible for forwarding and managing
this transparency is known as the home agent.

Whenever the mobile node moves, it registers its new care-of address with its
home agent. The home agent forwards the packet to the foreign network
using the care-of address. The delivery requires that the packet header is
modified so that the care-of address becomes the destination IP address. This
new header (Figure 4.8) encapsulates the original packet, causing the mobile
node's home address to have no impact on the encapsulated packet's routing.
This phenomenon is called tunneling. Figure 4.6 shows in general terms how
Mobile IP deals with the problem of dynamic IP addresses.

Let us take an example of IP datagrams being exchanged over a TCP connection

between the mobile node (A) and another host (server X in Figure 4.6), the
following steps occur:

• Server X wants to transmit an IP datagram to node A. The home address of

A is
advertised and known to X. X does not know whether A is in the home
network or somewhere else. Therefore, X sends the packet to A with A's home
address as the destination IP address in the IP header. The IP datagram is
routed to A's home network.

• At the A's home network, the incoming IP datagram is intercepted by

the home agent. The home agent discovers that A is in a foreign network.

A care-of-address has been allocated to A by this foreign network and available with
the home agent. The home agent encapsulates the entire datagram inside a new IP
datagram, with A's care-of address in the IP header. This new datagram with the care-
of-address as the destination address is retransmitted by the home agent.

• At the foreign network, the incoming IP datagram is intercepted by the foreign

agent. The foreign agent is the counterpart of the home agent in the foreign net-
work. The foreign agent strips off the outer IP header, and delivers the original
datagram to A.

• A intends to respond to this message and sends traffic to X. In this example, X is

not mobile; therefore, X has a fixed IP address. For routing A's IP datagram to X,
each datagram is sent to some router in the foreign network. Typically, this router is the
foreign agent. A uses X's IP static address as the destination address in the IP
header.

• The IP datagram from A to X travels directly across the network, using X's
IP address as the destination address.
To support the operations illustrated in the example above, mobile IP needs to
support three basic capabilities:

• Discovery: A mobile node uses a discovery procedure to identify

prospective home agents and foreign agents.

• Registration: A mobile node uses a registration procedure to inform its

home agent of its care-of address.

• Tunneling: Tunneling procedure is used to forward IP datagrams from a

home address to a care-of address.

4.5.2 Discovery

The Mobile IP discovery procedure has been built on top of an existing ICMP
router discovery and advertisement procedure as specified in RFC 1256.
Using these procedures a router can detect whether a new mobile node has
entered into its network. Also, using this procedure the mobile node determines
whether it is in a foreign network. For the purpose of discovery, a router or an
agent periodically issues a router advertisement ICMP message. The mobile
node on receiving this advertisement packet compares the network portion of
the router IP address with the network portion of its own IP address allocated by
the home network. If these network portions do not match, then the mobile node
knows that it is in a foreign network. A router advertisement can carry
information about default routers and information about one or more care-of
addresses. If a mobile node needs a care-of address without waiting for the
agent advertisement, the mobile node can broadcast a solicitation that will be
answered by any foreign agent.

4.5.3 Registration

Once a mobile node obtained a care-of-address from the foreign network, the
same needs to be registered with the home agent. The mobile node sends a
registration request to the home agent with the care-of address information.
When the home agent receives this request, it updates its routing table and sends
a registration reply back to the mobile node.

Authentication: As a part of registration, the mobile host needs to be

authenticated. Using 128-bit secret key and the MD5 hashing algorithm, a digital
signature is generated. Each mobile node and home agent shares a common
secret. This secret makes the digital signature unique and allows the agent to
authenticate the mobile node. At the end of the registration a triplet containing
the home address, care-of address and registration lifetime is maintained in the
home agent. This is called a binding for the mobile node. The home agent
maintains this association until the registration lifetime expires. The reg-
istration process involves the following four steps:

• The mobile node requests for forwarding service from the foreign network
by sending a registration request to the foreign agent.

• The foreign agent relays this registration request to the home agent of that
mobile node.

• The home agent either accepts or rejects the request and sends a registration
reply to the foreign agent.

• The foreign agent relays this reply to the mobile node.

We have assumed that the foreign agent will allocate the care-of address.
However, it is possible that a mobile node move to a network that has no
foreign agents or on which all foreign agents are busy. As an alternative
therefore, the mobile node may act as its own foreign agent by using a co-
located care-of address. A co-located care-of address is an IP address obtained
by the mobile node that is associated with the foreign network. If the mobile
node is using a co-located care-of address, then the registers happens directly
with its home agent.
4.54 Tunneling

Figure 4.7 shows the tunneling operations in Mobile IP. In the mobile IP, IP-
within-IP encapsulation mechanism is used. Using IP-within-IP, the home
agent, adds a new IP header called tunnel header. The new tunnel header
uses the mobile node's care-of address as the tunnel destination IP address.
The tunnel source IP address is the home agent's IP address. The tunnel header
uses 4 as the protocol number (Figure 4.8), indi-
cating that the next protocol header is again an IP header. In IP-within-IP, the
entire original IP header is preserved as the first part of the payload of the
tunnel header. The foreign agent after receiving the packet, drops the tunnel
header and delivers the rest to the mobile node.

When a mobile node is roaming in a foreign network, the home agent must be able to
intercept all IP datagram packets sent to the mobile node so that these datagrams can be
forwarded via tunneling. The home agent, therefore, needs to inform other nodes in the
home network that all IP datagrams with the destination address of the mobile node
should be delivered to the home agent. In essence, the home agent steals the identity of
the mobile node in order to capture packets destined for that node that are transmitted
across the home network. For this purpose ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is used to
notify all nodes in the home network.

Let us take the example of Figure 4.6. The original IP datagram from X to A has a
source address as IP address of X and a destination address as the home IP address of A.

The datagram is routed through the Internet to A's home network, where it is
intercepted by the home agent. The home agent encapsulates the incoming
datagram with an outer IP header. This outer header includes a source address
same as the IP address of the home agent and a destination address equal to the
care-of-address. As the care-of-address has the network portion of the foreign
network, the packet will find its way directly to the mobile host. When this
new datagram reaches the host in the foreign network, it strips off the outer
IP header to extract the original datagram. From this stripped off
packet it also finds out the original sender. This is necessary for the host to know
who has sent the packet so that the response reaches the right destination.

4.5.5 Cellular IP

The primary design goal for mobile IP protocols is to allow a host to change its point of
access during data transfer without being disconnected or needing to be reconfigured.
An important design goal for mobile host protocols is to support handoffs without
significant disturbance to ongoing data transmission. A change of access point while
connectivity is maintained is called a handoff.

To manage mobility, generally a "two tier addressing" scheme is used. One address is for
a fixed location which is known to all; other one is for a dynamic location which
changes as the user moves. In case of GSM this is done through Home Location Register
and Visitor Location Register. Same is true in Mobile IP, where a mobile host is associ-
ated with two IP addresses: a fixed home address that serves as the host-identifier; and a
care-of-address that reflects its current point of attachment. The mobile IP architecture
comprises three functions:

1. A database that contains the most up-to-date mapping between the two address
spaces (home address to care-of-address)

2. The translation of the host identifier to the actual destination address

3. Agents ensuring that the source and destination packets for arriving and

outgoing packets are updated properly so that routing of packets are proper

Whenever the mobile host moves to a new subnet managed by a different foreign agent,
the dynamic care-of-address will change. This changed care-of-address needs to be com-
municated to the home agent. This process works for slowly moving hosts. For a high
speed mobile host, the rate of update of the addresses needs to match the rate of change
of addresses. Otherwise, packets will be forwarded to the wrong (old) address. Mobile IP
fails to update the addressed properly for high speed mobility. Cellular IP (Figure 4.9), a
new host mobility protocol has been designed to address this issue.
In a Cellular IP, none of the nodes know the exact location of a mobile host. Packets
addressed to a mobile host are routed to its current base station on a hop-by-hop
basis where each node only needs to know on which of its outgoing ports to forward
packets. This limited routing information (referred as mapping) is local to the node
and does not assume that nodes have any knowledge of the wireless network topology.
Mappings are created and updated based on the packets transmitted by mobile hosts.
Cellular IP uses two parallel structures of mappings through Paging Caches (PC)
and Routing Caches (RC). PCs maintain mappings for stationary and idle (not in
data communication state) hosts; whereas, RC maintains mappings for mobile
hosts. Mapping entries in PC have a large timeout interval, in the order of
seconds or minutes. RCs maintain mappings for mobile hosts currently
receiving data or expecting to receive data. For RC mappings, the timeout are
in the packet time scale. Figure 4.10 illustrates the relationship between PCs
and RCs. While idle at location 1, the mobile host X keeps PCs up-to-date by
transmitting dummy packets at a low frequency (step 1 in Figure 4.10). Let us
assume that the host is mobile and moved to location 2 without transacting
any data. The PC mapping for X now points to location 2. While at location 2,
there are data packets to be routed to the mobile host X, the PC mappings are
used to find the host (step 2). As there is data transmission, the mapping
database to be used will be the RC. As long as data packets keep arriving,
the host maintains RC mappings, either by its outgoing data packets or
through the transmission of dummy packets (step 3).

Idle mobile hosts periodically generate short control packets, called paging-
update packets. These are sent to the nearest available base station. The paging-
update packets travel in the access network from the base station toward the
gateway router, on a hop-by-hop basis. Handoff in Cellular IP is always
initiated by the mobile host. As the host approaches a new base station, it
redirects its data packets from the old to the new base station. First few
redirected packets will automatically configure a new path of RC mappings for
the host to the new base station.

4.6 INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPv6)

Internet offers access to information sources worldwide. We access Internet

through increasing variety of wireless devices offering IP connectivity, such as
PDAs, palmtops, handhelds, laptops, and digital cellular phones. The explosion
in the number of devices connected to the Internet, combined with projections
for the future, made scientists think seriously whether the 32-bit address space
of TCP/IP is sufficient. IP version 6 (IPv6), the successor to today's IP version
4 protocol (IPv4), dramatically expands the available address space. Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) has produced a comprehensive set of
specifications (RFC 1287, 1752, 1886, 1971, 1993, 2292, 2373, 2460, 2473 etc.)
that define the next-generation IP protocol originally known as `IPNg,' now
renamed as `IPv6'. IPv6 addresses both a short-term and long-term concern
for network owners, service providers and users.

4.6.1 Address Space

IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses for each packet, creating a virtually infinite
number of IP addresses (approx. 3.4*10**38 IP addresses), as opposed to
3758096384 IPv4 addresses

(2**31 A Class address + 2**30 B Class + 2**29 C Class address). This also means that
if we set the world population at 10 billion in 2050, there will be 3.4*10**27 addresses
available per person.

In IPv6, there are global addresses and local addresses. Global addresses are used for
routing of global Internet. Link local addresses are available within a subnet. IPv6 uses
hierarchical addressing with three-level of addresses (Figure 4.11). This includes a Public
Topology (the 48 bit external routing prefix), a Site Topology (typically a 16 bit subnet
number), and an Interface Identifier (typically an automatically generated 64 bit number
unique on the local LAN segment).

End-user-sites get their address prefix from an ISP that provides them the IPv6 service.
General IPv6 host is given a linklocal address such as fe80::EUI-64 and more than one
global address such as global-prefix::EUI-64. It has 64bit length and made by IEEE
EUI-64 format. Interface ID is used to specific Interface in the same link. Interface ID
is generated to use Interface's link layer address. An Ethernet MAC address for a device
is 48 bits long, Interface ID is created by adding 2 octet "Oxfffe" in it's center. Like
02:60:8c:de:7:79 becomes 260:8cff:fede:779.
4.6.2 IPv6 Security

One of the biggest differences between IPv6 and IPv4 is that all IPv6 nodes are expec-
ted to implement strong authentication and encryption features to improve Internet
security. IPv6 comes native with a security protocol called IP Security (IPSec). Many
vendors adapted IPSec as a part of IPv4. IPSec protocol is a standards-based method
of providing privacy, integrity and authenticity to information transferred across IP
networks.

IPSec combines several different security technologies into a complete system to provide
confidentiality, integrity and authenticity. In particular, IPSec uses:

• Diffie-Hellman key exchange mechanism for deriving key between peers on a

public network.

• Public key cryptography to guarantee the identity of the two parties and avoid
man-in-the-middle attacks.

• Bulk encryption algorithms, such as 3DES, for encrypting the data.

• Keyed hash algorithms, such as HMAC, combined with traditional hash

algorithms such as MD5 or SHA for providing packet authentication.

• Digital certificates signed by a certificate authority to act as digital ID cards.

• IPSec provides IP network-layer encryption.

4.6.3 Packet payload

Each IPv6 packet payload is attached a tag which can be customized to enable a better
quality in the packet flow, or by a price of other class, such as non-real time quality of
service or 'real-time' service. This feature does not exist natively in IPv4, although a part
of payload could be used for the same, reducing unique information amount carried by
the packet.
Information is packetized into IPv6 packets, with the corresponding levels of control. A
neighbour discovery feature (care-of-address, and stateless Prefix or Stateful
DHCPv6)will in principle allow the device carrying these packets to configure
itself for a consistent dialogue with other devices or software interfaces. The
same can be done with IPv4 packets, but with the intervention of humans or
specific tools and services and only for selected information and software
architectures.

4.6.4 Migrating from IPv4 to IPv6

The Migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is quite an involved task. This includes the
following:

1. Migration of the network components to be able to support IPv6 packets.

As there is no change at the physical layer between IPv4 and IPv6, network
components like hub or switch need not change. As there is a change in the
packet header the routers need to be upgraded. However, using IP tunneling
IPv6 packets can propagate over an IPv4 envelope. Existing routers can
support IP tunneling.

2. Migration of the computing nodes in the network: this will need the
operating system upgrades so that they support IPv6 along with IPv4.
Upgraded systems will have both IPv4 and IPv6 stacks. Therefore, both the
IPv4 and IPv6 applications can run without any difficulty.

3. Migration of networking applications in both client and server systems:

this requires porting of the applications from IPv4 to IPv6 environment.

4.6,7 Mobile IP with IPv6

IPv6 includes many features for streamlining mobility support that are missing
in IP version 4, including Stateless Address Autoconfiguration and Neighbor
Discovery. IPv6 with hierarchical addressing scheme will be able to manage IP
mobility much efficiently. IPv6 also attempts to simplify the process of
renumbering, which could be critical to the future routability of the Internet
traffic. Mobility Support in IPv6, as proposed by the Mobile IP working group,
follows the design for Mobile IPv4. It retains the ideas of a home network,
home agent and the use of encapsulation to deliver packets from the home
network to the mobile node's current point of attachment. While discovery of
a care-of-address is still required, a mobile node can configure its a care-of
address by using Stateless Address Autoconfiguration and Neighbor Discovery.
Thus, foreign agents are not required to support mobility in IPv6.

Review Questions:

Ql: Describe the protocol stack of Bluetooth?

Q2: How does a new Bluetooth device discover a Bluetooth network? For inter
operability, the system needs to be open. Describe the security principles in
Bluetooth?

Q3: What is active RFID? Describe two applications of active RFID. How is

active RFID different from passive RFID? Describe two applications of

passive RFID?

Q4: What is WiMax (Wireless broadband)? How is it different from WiFi

(Wireless LAN)?

Q5: Explain how does Mobile IP work? What are the challenges with mobile
IP with respect to high speed mobility? How does Cellular IP solve some of
these challenges?

Q6: Explain three limitations of IPv4 that are overcome by IPv6. You have a
communication application that uses sockets in IPv4, what are the steps you
need to follow to port this application from IPv4 to IPv6?

Q7: You need to develop a secured healthcare application. What information

will you keep in the Java card and what will be in the backend server? How
will you secure this information on the Java Card?