Department of Computer Engineering

Module 3: Mobile Networking

1) What is reverse tunneling?
Soln: A mobile node can request a reverse tunnel between the foreign agent and the home
agent when the mobile node registers. A reverse tunnel is a tunnel that starts at the care-of address
of the mobile node and terminates at the home agent. The following figure shows the Mobile IP
topology that uses a reverse tunnel.

Facilitates guaranteed transmission of the IP packet responses through the tunnel to the HA
• Now, the HA transmits the response to the CN • A low value of time-to-live at the FA does not lead to
packet expiries. Information is multicast to a mobile node (MN) when it sets the option for multicast
listening • Uses Bi-directional tunnelling method over a mobile IP network. Assume that a MNi visits a
foreign network with FAj • A multicast-tree multicasts a packet to HAj • HAj forwards the multicasted IP
packets to MNj after registration. HAj establishes a bi-directional tunnel between HAi and FAj • FAj
transmits the received multicast message or packet to MNj. Suppose MNi visits another foreign network
with FAk • MNi requests FAk , and FAk forwards the transmit request for the multicast to Haj.
Disadvantages of reverse tunnel approach
Duplication of multicast IP packets when multiple MNs of HAj and other HAs visit the same FA • Because
several HAs create several bi-directional tunnels, through which they transmit multicast packets multiple
times. • When the built bi-directional tunnels do not converge into one, the packets maybe duplicated.
IP packets reach by short and long paths, when there is no DMSP (designated multicast provider)
2) Explain agent registration process in mobile
communication
Soln: Agent Registration: Mobile node after discovering the foreign agent, sends registration
request (RREQ) to the foreign agent. Foreign agent in turn, sends the registration request to the
home agent with the care-of-address. Home agent sends registration reply (RREP) to the
foreign agent. Then it forwards the registration reply to the mobile node and completes the
process of registration. The reply message contains the necessary codes to inform the mobile
node and the foreign agent about the status of the registration request. The message also
contains the lifetime that is granted by the home agent. The lifetime can be smaller than the
original request. The registration reply can also contain a dynamic home address assignment

3) How is packet delivery achieved to and from

mobile nodes.
Soln: Packet delivery to and from the mobile node. Figure illustrates packet delivery to and
from the MN.

As shown the packet is delivered in 4 Steps:

• Step 1: CN sends an IP packet with MN as a destination address and CN as a source.
CN does not need to know anything about the MN’s current location and sends the
packet as usual to the IP address of MN.
• The internet, not having information on the current location of MN, routes the packet
to the router responsible for the home network of MN. This is done using the standard
routing mechanisms of the internet.
• Step 2: The HA now intercepts the packet, knowing that MN is currently not in its home
network.
• A new header is put in front of the old IP header showing the COA as new destination
and HA as source of the encapsulated packet
 • Step 3: The foreign agent now decapsulates the packet, i.e., removes the additional
header, and forwards the original packet with CN as source and MN as destination to
the MN.
• Again, for the MN mobility is not visible. It receives the packet with the same sender
and receiver address as it would have done in the home network.
• Step 4: The MN sends the packet as usual with its own fixed IP address as source and
CN’s address as destination
• The router with the FA acts as default router and forwards the packet to CN.

4) Explain hidden station and exposed station

problem with solution in WLAN.
Soln: Consider the scenario with three mobile phones.
The transmission range of A reaches B, but not C. The transmission range of C reaches B, but not A.
Finally, the transmission range of B reaches A and C.
Hidden Terminal problem

A starts sending to B, C does not receive this transmission. C also wants to send something to B and
senses the medium. C also starts sending causing a collision at B. But A cannot detect this collision at
B and continues with its transmission. Here A is hidden for C and vice versa

Exposed Terminal problem

Consider the situation that B sends something to A and C wants to transmit data to some other mobile
phone outside the interference ranges of A and B. C senses the carrier and detects that the carrier is
busy (B’s signal). C postpones its transmission until it detects the medium as being idle again. But as A
is outside the interference range of C, waiting is not necessary. In this situation, C is exposed to B.

Multiple access with collision avoidance (MACA) MACA for Hidden terminal problem –

A does sends a request to send (RTS) first. -> B receives the RTS that contains the name of sender and
receiver, as well as the length of the future transmission. (RTS is not heard by C) -> This RTS triggers an
acknowledgement from B, called clear to send (CTS). -> The CTS again contains the names of sender
(A) and receiver (B) of the user data, and the length of the future transmission. -> This CTS is now heard
by C -> After receiving a CTS, C is not allowed to send anything for the duration indicated in the CTS
toward B. ->A collision cannot occur at B during data transmission, and the hidden terminal problem
is solved.

MACA for Exposed terminal problem B wants to send data to A, C to someone else. But C senses the
medium before transmitting, sensing a busy medium caused by the transmission from B. C defers,
although C could never cause a collision at A.

With MACA, -> B has to transmit an RTS first containing the name of the receiver (A) and the sender
(B). -> C does not react to this message as it is not the receiver, but A acknowledges using a CTS which
identifies B as the sender and A as the receiver of the following data transmission. -> C does not receive
this CTS and concludes that A is outside the detection range. -> C can start its transmission assuming
it will not cause a collision at A. The problem with exposed terminals is solved Disadvantage of MACA
overheads associated with the RTS and CTS transmissions – for short and time-critical data packets,
this is not negligible. MACA also assumes symmetrical transmission and reception conditions.

5) Explain snooping TCP and mobile TCP with their

merits and demerits.
Soln: Snooping TCP is one of the classical TCP improvement approaches. This
approach is designed to solve the end-to-end semantics loss in I-TCP. The basic concept is
to buffer packets close to the mobile node and retransmit them locally if a packet is lost.
Working of Snooping TCP:
 Until it receives an acknowledgement from the mobile node, the foreign agent
buffers the packet.
 A foreign agent snoops the packet flow and acknowledgement in both directions.
 If the foreign agent does not receive an acknowledgement from the mobile node,
or if it receives duplicate acknowledgements, it believes that the packet or
acknowledgement has been lost. The packet is immediately retransmitted by the
foreign agent from its buffer.
 In addition, the foreign agent maintains its own timer for retransmission of
buffered packets in case it is lost on the wireless link.
 While data transfer from the mobile node to the correspondent node, if the foreign
agent detects a missing packet, it returns NACK-Negative Acknowledgment to
the mobile node. It can now retransmit missing packet immediately. Reordering
of packets is done automatically at the correspondent node by TCP.
 In the concept of snooping TCP, the Time-out of the correspondent node still
works and triggers retransmission, If the foreign agent now crashes. The foreign
agent may discard duplicates of packets already retransmitted locally and
acknowledged by the mobile node. This avoids unnecessary traffic on the wireless
link.
 To maintain transparency foreign agent does not acknowledge the packet to the
fixed node, but the mobile node acknowledges the packets(END-TO-END
Semantics is maintained).
Advantages:
1. The end-to-end TCP semantic is preserved –
The packet is not acknowledged by the FA. And if the foreign agent (FA) or base station
(BS) fails, the solution reverts to standard TCP.
2. No Modifications at Fixed Host –
The fixed computer TCP does not need any changes. The majority of the changes are
made at the foreign agent (FA).
3. No packet loss during handovers –
In the case of a handover, if any data is not passed to the new foreign agent, there will
be a time-out at the fixed host and activating retransmission of the packet, via mobile IP,
to a new COA.
Disadvantages:

1. The behaviour of the wireless link –

Snooping TCP does not isolate the behaviour of the wireless link or I-TCP. Transmission
errors can spread to the correspondent nodes (CH).
2. A mobile node needs additional mechanisms –
The use of NACK between the foreign agent and the mobile node requires the mobile node
to have additional mechanisms. For arbitrary mobile nodes, this method is no longer
transparent.
3. Encryption at end-to-end –
If such encryption schemes are used end-to-end between the correspondent node and mobile
node, snooping and buffering data can be considered worthless. Snooping TCP may be used
if encryption is used above the transport layer (e.g. SSL/TLS).

The M-TCP (mobile TCP)1 approach has the same goals as I-TCP and snooping TCP: to
prevent the sender window from shrinking if bit errors or disconnection but not congestion
cause current problems. M-TCP wants to improve overall throughput, to lower the delay, to
maintain end-to-end semantics of TCP, and to provide a more efficient handover.
Additionally, M-TCP is especially adapted to the problems arising from lengthy or frequent
disconnections (Brown, 1997). M-TCP splits the TCP connection into two parts as I-TCP
does. An unmodified TCP is used on the standard host-supervisory host (SH) connection,
while an optimized TCP is used on the SH-MH connection. The supervisory host is
responsible for exchanging data between both parts similar to the proxy in ITCP.

The M-TCP approach assumes a relatively low bit error rate on the wireless link. Therefore,
it does not perform caching/retransmission of data via the SH. If a packet is lost on the wireless
link, it has to be retransmitted by the original sender. This maintains the TCP end-to-end
semantics. The SH monitors all packets sent to the MH and ACKs returned from the MH. If
 the SH does not receive an ACK for some time, it assumes that the MH is disconnected. It
then chokes the sender by setting the sender‟s window size to 0. Setting the window size to 0
forces the sender to go into persistent mode, i.e., the state of the sender will not change no
matter how long the receiver is disconnected. This means that the sender will not try to
retransmit data. As soon as the SH (either the old SH or a new SH) detects connectivity again,
it reopens the window of the sender to the old value. The sender can continue sending at full
speed. This mechanism does not require changes to the sender‟s TCP. The wireless side uses
an adapted TCP that can recover from packet loss much faster. This modified TCP does not
use slow start, thus, M-TCP needs a bandwidth manager to implement fair sharing over the
wireless link.
The advantages of M-TCP are the following:
1 It maintains the TCP end-to-end semantics. The SH does not send any ACK itself but
forwards the ACKs from the MH.
2 If the MH is disconnected, it avoids useless retransmissions, slowly starts or breaking
connections by simply shrinking the sender ‘s window to 0. Since it does not buffer data in
the SH as I-TCP does, it is not necessary to forward buffers to a new SH. Lost packets will
be automatically retransmitted to the new SH.
Disadvantages:
1 As the SH does not act as proxy as in I-TCP, packet loss on the wireless link due to bit
errors is propagated to the sender. M-TCP assumes low bit error rates, which is not always a
valid assumption.
2 A modified TCP on the wireless link not only requires modifications to the MH protocol
software but also new network elements like the bandwidth manager.

6) Explain the process of registration in Mobile IP.

Soln: Mobile IP Registration:

When the mobile node receives an agent advertisement, the mobile node registers through
the foreign agent, even when the mobile node might be able to acquire its own co-located
care-of address. This feature enables sites to restrict access to mobility services. Through
agent advertisements, mobile nodes detect when they have moved from one subnet to
another.

Mobile IP registration provides a flexible mechanism for mobile nodes to communicate their
current reachability information to their home agent. The registration process enables mobile
nodes to perform the following tasks:

 Request forwarding services when visiting a foreign network

 Inform their home agent of their current care-of address
 Renew a registration that is due to expire
 Deregister when they return home
Registration messages exchange information between a mobile node, a foreign agent, and
the home agent. Registration creates or modifies a mobility binding at the home agent,
associating the mobile node's home address with its care-of address for the specified lifetime.

The registration process also enables mobile nodes to:

 Register with multiple foreign agents

 Deregister specific care-of addresses while retaining other mobility bindings
 Discover the address of a home agent if the mobile node is not configured with this
information

Mobile IP defines the following registration processes for a mobile node:

 If a mobile node is registering a foreign agent care-of address, the mobile node
registers using that foreign agent.
 If a mobile node is using a co-located care-of address, and receives an agent
advertisement from a foreign agent on the link on which it is using this care-of
address, the mobile node registers using that foreign agent (or another foreign agent
on this link).
 If a mobile node uses a co-located care-of address, the mobile node registers directly
with its home agent.
 If a mobile node returns to its home network, the mobile node deregisters with
its home agent.

These registration processes involve the exchange of registration requests and registration
reply messages. When registering using a foreign agent, the registration process takes the
following steps, which the subsequent illustration depicts:

1. The mobile node sends a registration request to the prospective foreign agent to begin
the registration process.
2. The foreign agent processes the registration request and then relays it to the home
agent.
3. The home agent sends a registration reply to the foreign agent to grant or deny the
request.
4. The foreign agent processes the registration reply and then relays it to the mobile node
to inform it of the disposition of its request.
 When the mobile node registers directly with its home agent, the registration process requires
only the following steps:

 The mobile node sends a deregistration request to the home agent.

 The home agent sends a registration reply to the mobile node, granting or denying the
request.

7) Explain the need of specialized MAC in wireless

communication.
Soln: MOTIVATION FOR A SPECIALIZED MAC
Problems in wireless networks

 signal strength decreases proportional to the square of the distance

 the sender would apply CS and CD, but the collisions happen at the receiver

 it might be the case that a sender cannot “hear” the collision, i.e., CD does not work

 furthermore, CS might not work if, e.g., a terminal is “hidden” Hidden and exposed terminals

Hidden terminals  A sends to B, C cannot receive A  C wants to send to B, C senses a “free” medium
(CS fails)  collision at B, A cannot receive the collision (CD fails)  A is “hidden” for C

Exposed terminals  B sends to A, C wants to send to another terminal (not A or B)  C has to wait, CS
signals a medium in use  but A is outside the radio range of C, therefore waiting is not necessary  C is
“exposed” to B