Eric Wu (M.EngSc)& Johnny Lai (M.EngSc) Parametric Simulation of Mobile IPv6 Networks on Supercomputing Clusters Parametric Simulation of Mobile IPv6 Networks on Supercomputing Clusters Eric Wu (M.EngSc)& Johnny Lai (M.EngSc) Project Supervisors: Ahmet Sekercioglu & Gregory K. Egan About the Project We are developing models for simulating Mobile IPv6 networks. These models will be used to analyse the performance of Mobile IPv6 protocols in large scale networking scenarios. We use parametric simulation techniques on the simulation model to obtain performance statistics. We are using the VPAC supercomputing facility comprised of 128 Compaq Alpha CPUs. The main simulation software tool used is OMNeT++ (Objective Modular Network Testbed in C++). What is Mobile IPv6? Mobile IP is the IETF proposed standard solution for handling terminal mobility among IP subnets and was designed to allow a host to change its point-of-attachment transparently to an IP network. The generic problem with traditional IP mobility is that when an IP node moves to a new subnet, it has to change its IP address to reflect the new point-of-attachment. However, the transport layer uses the IP address as an identifier for managing the communication with the peer process. If the IP address changes, the transport layer connection to the peer process is lost, and the session will need to be re-established. The transport and application layer processes then continue using the home address transparently and they remain unaware of the changing care-of address as the Mobile Node (MN) moves out of its home network. Mobile IP solves the mobility problem by managing the logical connectivity between a hanging IP address (care-of-address) and the static home address. Conclusion Mobile IPv6 at the network layer solves the handover problem in the wireless environment. Mobile IPv6 provides IP address transparency to the upper layers which they use IP addresses as identifiers for identification of the peer sessions. The trend of integrating mobile telecommunications and IP networks is gaining momentum and Mobile IPv6 will therefore serve an important role in the 3rd generation mobile network. Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering Postgraduate Student Research Forum 2001