1. Mobile IP

2. Outline
What is the problem at the routing layer when Internet hosts move?!
Can the problem be solved?
What is the standard solution? – mobile IP
What are the problems with the solution?
Other approaches?

3. Internet hosts & Mobility
Wireless networking – allows Internet users to become mobile
As users move, they have to be handed over from one coverage area to another (since the coverage areas of access points are finite) …
Ongoing connections need to be maintained as the user moves …

4. Problems? What are the problems?
The IP address associated with a mobile host is network dependent!
When user connects to another network, IP address needs to change
Packets belonging to ongoing connections somehow need to be delivered to the mobile host

5. Problems (Contd.)? What are the options?
Make IP address host specific instead of network specific – obvious pitfalls?
Change IP address of host and start using the new IP address in the subsequent packets belonging to the connections

6. Intuitive Solution
Take up the analogy of you moving from one apartment to another
What do you do?
Leave a forwarding address with your old post-office!
The old post-office forwards mails to your new post-office, which then forwards them to you

7. Mobile IP Basics Same as the post-office analogy
Two other entities – home agent (old post-office), foreign agent (new post-office)
Mobile host registers with home agent the new location
Home agent captures packets meant for mobile host, and forwards it to the foreign agent, which then delivers it to the mobile host

8. Reverse path? Same as in the post-office analogy
Packets originating from the mobile host go directly to the static corresponding host …
Hence the name
triangular routing MH HA SH FA MH

9. Mobile IP Entities Mobile host Corresponding host Home address
Care-of address
Home agent
Foreign agent

10. Mobile IP in detail … Combination of 3 separable mechanisms:
Discovering the care-of address
Registering the care-of address
Tunneling to the care-of address

11. Discovering the care-of address
Discovery process built on top of an existing standard protocol: router advertisement (RFC 1256)
Router advertisements extended to carry available care-of addresses called: agent advertisements
Foreign agents (and home agents) send agent advertisements periodically
A mobile host can choose not to wait for an advertisement, and issue a solicitation message

12. Agent advertisements
Foreign agents send advertisements to advertise available care-of addresses
Home agents send advertisements to make themselves known
Mobile hosts can issue agent solicitations to actively seek information
If mobile host has not heard from a foreign agent its current care-of address belongs to, it seeks for another care-of address

13. Registering the Care-of Address
Once mobile host receives care-of address, it registers it with the home agent
A registration request is first sent to the home agent (through the foreign agent)
Home agent then approves the request and sends a registration reply back to the mobile host
Security?

14. Registration Authentication
Mobile IP requires the home agent and mobile host to share a security association
MD5 with 128-bit keys to create digital signatures for registration requests to be used (registration message & header used for creating signature)
Any problems? – replay attacks
Solved by using an unique message identifier (timestamp or pseudorandom number)

15. Illustration

16. Foreign Agent Security?
No foreign agent authentication required
Foreign agent can potentially discard data once registration happens
However, the problem is same as in unauthenticated route advertisements (RFC 1256) in the wireline context

17. Home agent discovery
If the mobile host is unable to communicate with the home agent, a home agent discovery message is used
The message is sent as a broadcast to the home agents in the home network

18. Tunneling to the Care-of address
When home agent receives packets addressed to mobile host, it forwards packets to the care-of address
How does it forward it? - encapsulation
The default encapsulation mechanism that must be supported by all mobility agents using mobile IP is IP-within-IP (RFC 2003)
Using IP-within-IP, home agent inserts a new IP header in front of the IP header of any datagram

19. Tunneling (contd.) Destination address set to the care-of address
Source address set to the home agent’s address
Tunnel header uses 4 for higher protocol id – this ensures that IP after stripping out the first header, processes the packet again
Tunnel header of 55 used if IP minimal encapsulation used (RFC 2004)

20. Illustration

21. Recap Host mobility and Internet addresses Post-office analogy
Home agent, foreign agent, care-of address, home address
Registration and Tunneling
IPv6 and Mobility support …

22. Recap Host mobility and Internet addresses Post-office analogy
Home agent, foreign agent, care-of address, home address
Registration and Tunneling
IPv6 and Mobility support …

23. Mobile IP Basic Operation
Entities
Mobile host, home agent, foreign agent, corresponding host
Discovering Care-of Addresses
Agent advertisements
Registering Care-of Address
Security
Tunneling to Care-of Address
IP-within-IP encapsulation

24. Mobile IP Problems? Triangular routing overhead
What is the worst case scenario?
Registration latency and associated problems
Ingress filtering and consequences
Infrastructure required for mobile IP support?
Firewalls

25. Mobile IP Optimizations
Route optimization
Smooth hand-offs

26. Route Optimizations
Enable direct notification of the corresponding host
Direct tunneling from the corresponding host to the mobile host
Binding cache maintained at corresponding host
Management of cache not stipulated (e.g. least used entry replacement)

27. Route optimizations (contd.)
4 types of messages
Binding update
Binding request
Binding warning
Binding acknowledge

28. Binding Update
When a home agent receives a packet to be tunneled to a mobile host, it sends a binding update message to the corresponding host
When a home agent receives a binding request message, it replies with a binding update message
Also used in the the smooth-handoffs optimization

29. Binding Update (Contd.)
Corresponding host caches binding and uses it for tunneling subsequent packets
Lifetime of binding?
Corresponding host that perceives a near-expiry can choose to ask for a binding confirmation using the binding request message
Home agent can choose to ask for an acknowledgement to which a corresponding host has to reply with a binding ack message

30. Binding update (problem?)
What happens when a mobile host moves?

31. Binding warning
When a foreign agent receives a tunneled message, but sees no visitor entry for the mobile host, it generates a binding warning message to the appropriate home agent
When a home agent receives a warning, it issues an update message to the corresponding host
What if the foreign agent does not have the home agent address (why?) ?

32. Illustration Home Agent BU BW BR BA Foreign Agent Corresponding Host
Mobile Host

33. Smooth Hand-offs
When a mobile host moves from one foreign agent to another …
Packets in flight to the old FA are lost and are expected to be recovered through higher layer protocols (e.g. TCP)
How can these packets be saved?

34. Smooth Hand-offs Make previous FA forward packets to the new FA
Send binding updates to the old FA through the new FA
Such forwarding will be done for a pre-specified amount of time (registration lifetime)
Update can also help old FA free any reserved resources immediately
Why better?

35. Mobile IP in IPv6
Route optimization and smooth hand-offs used in IPv6 mobility
Binding updates easier since IPv6 supports destination caches at sources
IPv6 security inherently stronger than in IPv4. Hence, no explicit security mechanisms needed for mobile IP
Source routing to be used instead of encapsulation (why?)

36. Recap Mobile IP problems Mobile IP Optimizations
Mobility support in IPv6

37. Puzzle Power drill Power drill that drills square holes?!
What would the cross-section of the power drill look like?