WLAN Network-Layer Protocols

NES440 Wireless Networks

Dr. Fahed Awad

Department of Network Engineering & Security
Jordan University of Science and Technology

NES440: Wireless Networks Copyright © Dr. Fahed H. Awad 1

WLAN IP Addressing
 In the TCP/IP stack, the IP protocol is responsible for moving datagrams
between hosts
 Network layer protocol
 The TCP/IP works on the principle that each network host has a unique IP
address
 Used to find the path to a specific host
 Routers use the IP address to forward packets
 However, this prohibits the mobile station from, moving (or roaming) to another subnet
while using the same IP address
 A mobile station that wants to roam needs a new IP address on every network
 The Mobile IP Protocol:
 Provides a mechanism in the TCP/IP stack to support mobile computing

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What is mobility?
 The spectrum of mobility, from the network perspective:

no mobility high mobility

The mobile The mobile station, The mobile station,

station, using the connecting/
same access point disconnecting from
the network using
the DHCP
passing through
multiple access points
while maintaining an
ongoing connection
(like a cell phone)

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IEEE 802.11: Mobility within a subnet
 H1 remains within the same IP subnet:
router
 IP address stays the same
 The switch: hub or
 Needs to know which AP is associated with H1? switch
 Self-learning: the switch needs to see a frame
from H1 and “remember” which switch port can BBS 1
be used to reach H1 AP 1
 What if H1 moves to AP2 and a frame is sent to
it before its location has been updated? AP 2

H1 BBS 2

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Mobility Management: Terminology
home network: the permanent
“home” of the mobile station
(e.g., 128.119.40/24)
home agent: the entity that will
perform the mobility functions on
behalf of mobile station, when
mobile station is remote

wide area
network
Permanent address: the
address in the home network,
which can always be used to
reach mobile station
e.g., 128.119.40.186
correspondent

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Mobility Management: Terminology
Permanent Address: remains Visited Network: the network in
constant (e.g., 128.119.40.186) which the mobile station
currently resides (e.g., 79.129.13/24)
Care-Of-Address:
address in the visited
network (e.g., 79,129.13.2)

wide area
network

Foreign Agent: the entity

Correspondent: a
host that wants to
communicate with
mobile station
NES440: Wireless Networks Copyright © Dr. Fahed H. Awad
in the visited network
that performs the
mobility functions on
correspondent
behalf of the mobile
station
6
How do you contact a mobile friend?
I wonder where
 Consider a friend who frequently Alice has moved to?
changes addresses, how do you
find him/her?
 Search all phone books?
 Call his/her parents?
 Expect him/her to let you know where
he/she is?

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Mobility Management: Approaches
 Let the routing handle it: routers advertise the addresses of mobile-
nodes-in-residence via usual routing table exchange:
 Routing tables indicate where each mobile is located
 No changes to the end-systems (i.e.; transparent)

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Mobility Management: Approaches
 Let the routing handle it: routers advertise the addresses of mobile-nodes-in-
residence via usual routing tablenot exchange.
scalable
to millions
 Routing tables indicate where each ofmobile is located
 No changes to the end-systems mobiles(i.e.; transparent)

 Let the end-systems handle it:

 Indirect routing: communication from the correspondent to the mobile
station goes through the home agent, then is forwarded to the remote
location
 Direct routing: the correspondent gets the foreign address of the mobile
station and sends directly to it

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Mobility Management: Registration
Home network Visited network

1
2
wide area
network

The mobile
The foreign agent contacts station contacts
home agent home: “this mobile the foreign
is resident in my network” agent on
entering the
End result: visited network

 The foreign agent knows about the visiting mobile station

 The home agent knows the location of mobile station
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Mobility Management via Indirect Routing
The foreign agent
The home agent intercepts receives the packets
packets and forwards them and forwards them to
to the foreign agent using mobile station
Visited
“encapsulation”
network
Home
network
3
wide area
network
2
1
The correspondent 4
addresses the packets
using the home address The mobile station
of the mobile station replies directly to
the correspondent

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Indirect Routing: Comments
 The mobile station uses two addresses:
 A permanent address: used by the correspondent (hence the location of the mobile
station is transparent to the correspondent)
 A care-of-address: used by the home agent to forward datagrams to the mobile station
 The foreign agent functions may be done by mobile station itself
 Triangle routing: Correspondent  Home network  Mobile station
 It is inefficient when the correspondent and the mobile station are in the same network

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Indirect Routing: Moving between networks
 Suppose that the mobile station moves to another network
 It should register with a new foreign agent
 The new foreign agent registers with the home agent
 The home agent updates the care-of-address for the mobile station
 The packets continue to be forwarded to the mobile station (but with the new care-of-
address)
 Mobility and changing foreign networks is transparent: on going connections
can be maintained!
 What happens if a packets arrives in between network transitions? Would
that be a big problem?

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Mobility via Direct Routing
The foreign agent
receives the packet
The correspondent
and forwards it to
sends the packet to
the foreign agent
the mobile station Visited
network
Home
network 4
wide area
2 network
3 5

The correspondent 1
The mobile
requests and receives station replies
the foreign address directly to the
of the mobile station correspondent
correspondent

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Mobility via Direct Routing: Comments
 It overcomes the triangle routing problem
 However, it is not transparent to the correspondent:
 The correspondent must get the care-of-address from the home agent
 What if the mobile station changes the visited network?
 A protocol to notify the correspondent about the new care-of-address
 Use the foreign agent as an anchor

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 Accommodating mobility with direct routing
 Anchor foreign agent: the foreign agent in the first visited network
 The packets are always routed first to the anchor foreign agent
 When the mobile station moves again, the new foreign agent
arranges to have the packets forwarded from the anchor foreign
agent

Foreign network
visited at the start of
The anchor the session
foreign
wide area agent
2
network
1 4
3
5
The new foreign
The correspondent network
The new
agent
The correspondent foreign agent

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 WLAN Network-Layer Protocols

The Mobile IP Protocol

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The Mobile IP Protocol
 Defined by RFC 3220
 It has many of the features we’ve already seen:
 Home agents
 Foreign agents
 Foreign-agent registration
 Care-of-addresses
 Encapsulation (packet-within-a-packet)
 It consists of three main components:
 Agent discovery
 Registration with the home agent
 Indirect routing of the datagrams using packet encapsulation (or tunneling)
 Message exchange in the Mobile IP protocol uses extended ICMP messages
within UDP segments

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Mobile IP: Agent Discovery
 Agent Advertisement:
 The foreign or home agents advertise service by broadcasting Router Advertisement ICMP
messages (type field = 9) with an agent advertisement extension (type field = 16)
 Agent Solicitation:
 The mobile station broadcasts an Agent Solicitation message, which is a Router Solicitation ICMP
message with type field = 10. The agent replies with a unicast of agent advertisement message
0 8 16 24
H,F bits: home type = 9 code = 0 checksum
and/or foreign agent =9 =9
standard
router address ICMP fields

M, G, V bits:
R bit: registration
the type of
required
encapsulation
type = 16 length sequence #
RBHFMGV
registration lifetime
bits
reserved
mobility agent and compression
B bit: agent is busy
advertisement
used
0 or more care-of- extension
and cannot register addresses
any more station

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Mobile IP: Registration
 The registration process consists of four steps:
1. The station send a Registration Request message to the foreign agent
selected
2. The foreign agent forwards the request to the station’s home agent
3. The home agent either accepts or denies the request and sends a
Registration Reply to the foreign agent
4. The foreign agent forwards the reply to the station

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Mobile IP: Registration example
home agent foreign agent
HA: 128.119.40.7 COA: 79.129.13.2
registration req.
COA: 79.129.13.2
HA: 128.119.40.7
MA: 128.119.40.186
Lifetime: 9999
identification: 714
encapsulation format
….
registration reply
time HA: 128.119.40.7
MA: 128.119.40.186
Lifetime: 4999
Identification: 714
encapsulation format
….
NES440: Wireless Networks Copyright © Dr. Fahed H. Awad
visited network: 79.129.13/24
ICMP agent adv.
Mobile agent
COA: 79.129.13.2 MA: 128.119.40.186
….
registration req.
COA: 79.129.13.2
HA: 128.119.40.7
MA: 128.119.40.186
Lifetime: 9999
identification:714
….
registration reply
HA: 128.119.40.7
MA: 128.119.40.186
Lifetime: 4999
Identification: 714
….
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Mobile IP: Indirect Routing
foreign-agent-to-mobile packet
packet sent by home agent to foreign dest: 128.119.40.186
agent: a packet within a packet

dest: 79.129.13.2 dest: 128.119.40.186

Permanent address:
128.119.40.186

Care-of address:
79.129.13.2
dest: 128.119.40.186
packet sent by
correspondent

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Wireless & mobility and the upper layers
 Q: what is the impact of wireless communication and node mobility on the upper layers’
protocols?
 Logically, the impact should be minimal, why?
 The best-effort service model provided by the network layer to the transport layer remains the same regardless
 TCP and UDP, as transport layer protocols, can (and do) run over wireless and mobile networking standards.
Therefore, the application layer should not be changed

 However, performance-wise the story might differ:

 Transport layer protocols, the TCP in particular, may have different performance in wired and in wireless
networks
 Packet loss/delay due to bit-errors and collisions (e.g.; discarded packets and delayed packets due to link-layer
retransmissions) and handoff
 The TCP interprets the packet loss as congestion and accordingly decrease the congestion window
unnecessarily to slow down the sending rate

 As far as the applications are concerned:

 The low-bandwidth and relatively low data rates of wireless and mobile networks may cause delay impairments
to real-time applications
 However, wireless and mobility have enabled new and important categories of network applications such as
location-aware and context-aware applications

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