Mobile IP

Mobile IP
 Layer Model
Application layer – service location
– new applications, multimedia
– adaptive applications
Transport layer – congestion and flow control
– quality of service
– addressing, routing,
Network layer device location
– hand-over
– authentication
Data link layer
– media access
– multiplexing
– media access control
Physical layer – encryption
– modulation
– interference
– attenuation
– frequency
Fr. Schiller
 Introduction

 A rapid growth in the number of Portable computers and Number

of nodes connected to Internet.
 desire to have continuous network connectivity to the Internet
irrespective of physical connection.
 IP requires the location of a node connected to the Internet to be
uniquely identified by an assigned IP address.
 When a mobile node moves to another physical location, it has to
change its IP address.
 However, higher level protocols require an IP address of a node to
be fixed----for identifying the connections.

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 Introduction …

 IP was not designed considering mobility.

 Dynamic nature of mobile nodes connectivity require more flexible
support than provided by conventional TCP/IP
`
 As a result, Mobile Internet Protocol [ Mobile IP ]
Proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
It enables mobile computers to stay connected to the Internet
regardless of their location and without changing their IP
address.

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 Motivation for Mobile IP

 any access to the Internet has restriction of point of attachment.

 When a mobile node moves to different place,
 we have to reconfigure it with a new IP address
all active connections are interrupted
packets which are routed to it will arrive at its original
network

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 Motivation for Mobile IP…

To support mobile communication two possible options [apart

from Mobile IP]
i. the node has to change its IP address whenever it changes
its point of attachment
ii. host-specific routes have to propagate throughout
Internet routing tables
A better solution
 Mobile IP
It is an open standard that allows users to keep the same IP
address, stay connected, and maintain ongoing applications
while roaming across different networks.
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 Terminologies in Mobile IP

Mobile Node (MN)

A node that changes its point of attachment
Home Agent (HA)
A router on a mobile nodes’ network, that delivers packets
to mobile nodes and maintains current location information
Foreign Agent (FA)
A router on a mobile node’s visited network which
cooperates with the home agent to complete the delivery of
packet to the mobile node while it is away from home.
Care-of address
 An address the mobile node uses for communication when
it is away from its original network.

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 Terminologies in Mobile IP…

Correspondent Node (CN)

A node with which a mobile node is communicating.
Foreign Network
Any network other than the mobile node’s home network.
Home Address
An IP address assigned for an extended period of time to a
mobile node.
Home Network
A network having a network prefix matching that of a
mobile node’s home address.
Mobility Agent ( home agent & foreign agent)
A node that offers support services to mobile nodes.
Visited Network
A network other than a mobile node’s home network to 6
which the mobile node is currently connected.
 Illustration

Home Agent
Mobile Node

router

home network Foreign Agent

Internet

foreign
network
router
Correspondent Node (current physical network
for the MN)

end-system router 7
 Operations in Mobile IP

• There are three operations

 Agent Discovery

 Registration

 Tunneling

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 Agent Discovery

 Mobility agents advertise their presence by periodically

broadcasting Agent Advertisement Messages(list Care-of-addresses, flag
 MN can trigger the advertisement by sending Agent Solicitation
Message
 If the MN discovers that it is on foreign network, it obtains a care-
of address
 Two methods
1. Foreign agent care-of address( shared by MN,by foreign agent)
2.Collocated care-of address( Foreign agents busy; by DHCP; one MN
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 Registration

• The registration process in Mobile IP with care-of addresses

Home Address Home Agent Media Lifetime
Address Address (in s)
131.193.44.14 131.193.44.7 00-60-08-95-66-E1 150
131.193.33.19 131.193.33.1 00-60-08-68-A2-56 200

Home Care-of Address Lifetime

Address (in s)
131.193.44.14 128.172.23.78 150
131.193.33.19 119.123.56.78 200
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 Registration . . .

 If the MN obtained a collocated care-of address, the whole

registration process is done directly between the MN and the
home agent.

Re-registration

 If the lifetime is about to expire it has to reregisters before its

registration lifetime expires.

Deregistration

 When the mobile node returns to its home network it has

to deregister from the home agent. (registration request life time= 0)13 11
 Tunneling . . .

Tunneling process in Mobile IP.

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 Problems with basic Mobile IP

 Problems with the basic Mobile IP

 Security
 Ingress Filtering
 Triangular Routing
 Single Home Agent Model

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 Security

 Mobile nodes are connected to Internet

via wireless
 vulnerable to security attack

 Example
 A node may pretend to be a FA and send a registration
request to a HA so as to divert Packet traffic to itself.

Solution :
Authentication

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 Ingress Filtering

 router on some networks discards packets

if Source IP dose not belong to the network
• used to stop spoofing.

• packets sent from a MN include its home address as the

source IP address

 Solution :
Reverse Tunneling
 Create a reverse path through the HA for the entire
MN to CN communications.

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 Triangular Routing

Solution:
Route Optimization
 Let the CN know the Care-of address of MN
 Direct routing

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 Single Home Agent

 Simple and easy to configure

• if the home agent breaks down

Solution :
Multiple home agent
 if one fail the other could take over

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 Mobile IPv6

 Solves the problem of the lack of available address space

 has come up with the following improvements
• Route Optimization is built as a part of Mobile IPv6
• Foreign Agents are not needed(enhanced capability)
• Solves Ingress filtering problem in basic Mobile IP
• by putting the care-of address as the source address

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Mobile IPv6…

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 Summary

 Mobile IP allows MN to roam transparently from place to

place within the Internet,
 Operations
 Agent Discovery, Registration, tunneling
 Problems with basic Mobile IP:
 Security , Ingress filtering , Triangular routing
 Mobility support in IPv6 solves many of the problems of
basic Mobile IP.

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