Mobile Routing
Basic Notions of Mobility
When a host moves, its point of attachment in the
network changes. This is called a handoff.
The point of attachment is a base station (BS) for cellular
network, or an access point (AP) for WLAN.
We will assume WLAN in our examples. Problem essentially
the same for cellular networks.
Handoff can be handled completely in the link layer, if
both the APs involved are in the same network.
Otherwise, a route change in the IP layer may be
needed. This is called network layer handoff.
Mobile IP is a standard protocol for handling network
layer handoff.
Illustrating Link Layer and Network Layer
Handoff
Internet
R
R
R R
R R
LAN segment LAN segment
Network layer handoff
Link layer handoff Link layer handoff
Mobile host
Motivation for Mobile IP
How IP routing works?
IP addresses are assigned in a topologically significant fashion. All
hosts in a network shares the same network address (e.g.,
129.13.42).
Routing is generally based on prefixes. For example, a packet for
[Link] is forwarded to network 129.13.42 unless there is a
different host-specific route.
What if a hosts moves to a different network? Two solutions:
The host carries the old IP address. Maintain host-specific routes
for all mobile hosts on all routers. Not scalable, because of too
many individual routes need to be maintained.
Change IP address of the mobile host to an address in the new
network. Upper layer connections (such as TCP) will break. Also,
not easy to find IP address for a mobile host that moves frequently.
Mobile IP solution:
Preserve the original address, but also use a new care-of-address
(COA).
Why is Mobile IP Complex?
Need transparency
Need to be transparent to any upper-layer protocol (such as
TCP).
So, cannot really change the IP address of MH.
But MH is in a different network after handoff. This new
network has a different network address!!
Need compatibility
Cannot change the Internet addressing scheme just to
support Mobile IP!
Cannot change the routers.
Mobile hosts must be able to communicate with fixed hosts
in the Internet that may not speak mobile IP.
Core Idea of Mobile IP
Transform the mobility problem into a routing
problem.
Use two IP addresses for the mobile.
Preserve the original IP address. But borrow a new
IP address (COA) in the newly visited network.
Use forwarding: A specific host (typically the router)
in the “home” network forwards IP datagrams to the
new COA.
Mobile IP does not need wireless network. The
handoff between two networks may involve physical
wireline connection/disconnection.
Idea is to simply be able to make the change in
network transparent to upper layer.
Mobile IP does not dictate how the change might
happen.
Basic Mechanism: Analogy With Post Office
Similar to mail forwarding in post office.
Example: You have moved from your home to Stony Brook for grad
studies. What happens to your mail to your home address?
Solution 1: Notify all your correspondents about your address change.
But we need a transparent solution.
Solution 2: Use the mail forwarding service in the post office. Good
idea. Transparent to your correspondents.
Explore the second solution.
You notify the home post office about your address change.
Home post office intercepts all your mail. They do this anyway to deliver
your mail to you. They now see that you have a forwarding address.
Home post office puts your mail in another envelop with your forwarding
address. Your real address is still the home address.
Home post office mails that envelop again.
You get your mail from the Stony Brook post office at your forwarding
address.
You open the envelop and recover the original mail.
The original mail is indistinguishable from the mail you would have gotten at
home!
Mobile IP = Mail Forwarding in IP Networks
Terminology:
Home network: Network where the MH got its IP address
from.
Home Agent: A software entity in the home network that
does the encapsulation and forwarding. Typically, runs on
an appropriate router.
Foreign network: Any network the MH is visiting.
Foreign Agent: A software entity in the foreign network that
performs the decapsulation. Could run on the MH or on an
appropriate router.
Three basic steps in Mobile IP
Agent advertisement (to determine availability of
service)
Registration (to notify about needed service)
Tunneling (to get the actual delivery)
Mobile IP Example
Foo from blue network
visiting the red network
Blue = home network
Red = foreign network
Original IP address COA
Mobile host retains its original IP address; but borrows the
service of a new COA for the network that it is visiting.
Several mobile hosts can share the same COA. In that case the
COA is actually the IP address of a router running the foreign
agent. But this does not need to be the case.
[Example due to Charles Perkins]
A Note on IP Routing
Why do we really need forwarding? Why cannot the MH simply
use the original IP address in the foreign network? Why a new
COA?
In the post office analogy, this means that you will continue
using your home address while in Stony Brook.
This is ridiculous in the post office system.
In IP network this is not impossible. But impractical.
IP routing is hierarchical. IP addresses are assigned in a
topologically significant fashion. All hosts in a network share the
same network address (e.g., 132.4.16.).
Routing is generally based on prefixes. For example, a packet for
Foo (132.4.16.Z) is forwarded to network 132.4.16. unless there is
a different host-specific route.
Providing host specific routes to all mobiles is not scalable, given
that such routes must be updated when the move.
Terminology
Home Agent (HA)
system in the home network of the MN, typically a router
registers the location of the MN, tunnels IP datagrams to the
COA
Foreign Agent (FA)
system in the current foreign network of the MN, typically a
router
forwards the tunneled datagrams to the MN, typically also
the default router for the MN
Care-of Address (COA)
address of the current tunnel end-point for the MN (at FA or
MN)
actual location of the MN from an IP point of view
can be chosen, e.g., via DHCP
Mobile IP Illustration
HA
MH
router
home network mobile end-system
Internet
(home network
for the MH) foreign
network
router
FA
(current network
for the MH)
CH
router
Correspondent host
(any host communicating with the MH)
Transfer to the Mobile Host
HA
2
MH
router
home network 3 mobile end-system
Internet
foreign
network
router
1 FA
1. CH transmits packets to the IP
CH
addr of MH. HA intercepts packet.
2. HA tunnels packet to COA, here
router FA, by IP-in-IP encapsulation
Correspondent host
(any host communicating with the MH)
3. FA decapsulates and forwards the
packet to the MH.
Transfer from the Mobile Host
HA
MH
router
home network mobile end-system
Internet
foreign
network
router
FA
MH transmits to CH via normal
mechanism.
CH
No complexity here as IP routing is
based on destination’s IP address
router only.
Correspondent host
(any host communicating with the MH)
FA acts as the default router in this
example.
Data transfer to the mobile system
HA
2
MH
home network 3 receiver
Internet
FA foreign
network
1. Sender sends to the IP address of MN,
HA intercepts packet
1 2. HA tunnels packet to COA, here FA,
CN
by encapsulation
3. FA forwards the packet
sender to the MN
Data transfer from the mobile system
HA
1 MN
home network sender
Internet
FA foreign
network
1. Sender sends to the IP address
of the receiver as usual,
CN
FA works as default router
receiver
Overview Picture
COA
router
home router MH
FA
network HA
foreign
Internet network
CN router
3.
router
home router MH
2. FA
network HA
4.
foreign
Internet network
1.
CN router
Agent Advertisement and Registration
Agent Advertisement
HA and FA periodically send advertisement
messages into their physical subnets.
MH listens to these messages and detects,
if it is in the home or a foreign network.
MH reads a COA from the FA advertisement
messages.
Registration (always limited lifetime!)
MH signals COA to the HA via the FA, HA
acknowledges via FA to MH.
Registration
MN r FA HA MN r HA
egis egis
requ tration requ tra
tio
est est n
regi
s
requ tration
est
n
tratio
regis
ly
n rep
tratio
regis
ly t
rep
n
tratio
regis
ly
rep
Registration via collocated COA
t (No FA involved, MH itself
performs the FA actions.
Registration via FA Collocated COA can be gotten
via DHCP)
Tunneling (IP-in-IP Encapsulation)
original IP header original data
new IP header new data
outer header inner header original data
All packets to MH is intercepted at HA and tunneled
to the COA.
Uses IP tunneling (IP-in-IP encapsulation), similar to
MBone.
Outer IP packet has COA as the destination and HA
and the source.
Encapsulation I
Encapsulation of one packet into another as payload
e.g. IPv6 in IPv4 (6Bone), Multicast in Unicast (Mbone)
here: e.g. IP-in-IP-encapsulation, minimal encapsulation
IP-in-IP-encapsulation (mandatory, RFC 2003)
tunnel between HA and COA
ver. IHL DS (TOS) length
IP identification flags fragment offset
TTL IP-in-IP IP checksum
IP address of HA
Care-of address COA
ver. IHL DS (TOS) length
IP identification flags fragment offset
TTL lay. 4 prot. IP checksum
IP address of CN
IP address of MN
TCP/UDP/ ... payload
Encapsulation II
Minimal encapsulation (optional)
avoids repetition of identical fields
e.g. TTL, IHL, version, DS (RFC 2474, old: TOS)
only applicable for unfragmented packets.
ver. IHL DS (TOS) length
IP identification flags fragment offset
TTL min. encap. IP checksum
IP address of HA
care-of address COA
lay. 4 protoc. S reserved IP checksum
IP address of MN
original sender IP address (if S=1)
TCP/UDP/ ... payload
Some More Details
Communication from CH to MH:
Source IP address: CH, Dest IP address: MN
Goes to the home network. HA intercepts.
HA encapsulates and tunnels packet to foreign network. Addresses
on the outer packet: Source: HA, Dest: COA
If COA is on FA, FA decapsulates packet and delivers to MH via a
local mechanism.
This local mechanism is not a part of mobile-IP specs. Note here MH
uses its home network address.
Local mechanism could be as simple transmitting on a Ethernet
segment.
If COA is on MH (collocated COA)
Packet is directly delivered to MH.
MN itself decapsulates packet.
Communication from MH to CH:
Source IP address: MH, Dest: CH
Optimizations
“Triangular Routing”
CH sends all packets via HA to MH.
higher latency and network load.
Solution
CH can learn the current location (COA) of MH from the HA.
Then CH can directly tunnel the packet to the COA.
However, this requires that CH also speaks Mobile IP.
Change of FA
Packets in transit during the change can be lost.
New FA informs old FA to avoid packet loss, old FA now
forwards remaining packets to new FA.
This information also enables the old FA to release
resources for the MH.
Illustration: Change of foreign agent
CH HA FAold FAnew MH
Data Data Data
Update
ACK
Data Data
MH changes
location
Update Registration
ACK
Data
Data Data
Warning
Request
Update
ACK
Data
Data
t
Reverse Tunneling
The packets originating from MH in the foreign
network has the source address from the MH’s home
network.
Often a firewall in the foreign network will filter such
packets for security reasons, as the source
addresses are not “topologically correct.”
To avoid this, FA can “reverse tunnel” packets to
home agent.
Reverse Tunneling
HA
2
MH
home network sender
1
Internet
FA foreign
network
3 1. MH sends to FA
CH 2. FA tunnels packets to HA
by encapsulation
receiver 3. HA forwards the packet to the
receiver (standard case)