Mobility Management

Macro Mobility & Micro Mobility

 Introduction
● IP Mobility is a mechanism that allows mobile device to move from one network to another
network without changing its permanent IP address.

● This chapter discusses various protocols to support IP Mobility.

● Mobile IP was the first communication protocol developed by IETF ( Internet Engineering Task
Force ) to support IP mobility with the current version of IPV4.

● Later Mobile IPV6 (MIPV6) was developed as an update to IPV6 protocols to supports IP
mobility.

● IPV6 header has some new features and options that supports IP mobility.
● IP mobility refers to the set of mechanisms that allow an IP mobile node
to move freely between different IP networks while maintaining IP
connectivity in a transparent way.

● Current versions of the Internet Protocol (IPV4) assume that the point at
which a computer attaches to the Internet or a network is fixed and its IP
address identifies the network to which it is attached.

● Packets are sent to a mobile device based on the location information

contained in the IP address.

● If a mobile device, moves to a new network while keeping its IP address

unchanged, its address does not reflect the new point of attachment.
● Consequently, existing routing protocols cannot route packets to the mobile
node correctly.

● In this situation, we must reconfigure the mobile node with a new IP

address representing its new location.

● Thus, under the current Internet Protocol (IPV4) , if the mobile node moves
without changing its address, it loses routing; and if it does change its
address, it loses connections.

● One of the most desirable features of IP mobility mechanisms is the ability

of maintaining connectivity without interrupting ongoing communications.
Mobile IP (MIP)
● Mobile IP (or MIP) is an IETF standard communications protocol that is designed to
allow mobile device users to move from one network to another.while maintaining a
permanent IP address.
● Mobile IP is an enhancement of the internet protocol (IP) that adds mechanisms for
forwarding Internet traffic to mobile devices when they are connecting through
other than their home network.

● Every host will have a "Home Address (Permanent IP)" within a "Home Network" A
home network has a Agent that provides several services for the mobile node.

● Traffic destined to the "Home Address" of mobile node (MN) will always he routed
to the "Home Agent”. If the mobile node is in its "Home Network", traffic will be
forwarded directly the mobile node.
● If the mobile node has moved to some other network called 'Foreign
Network", traffic will be IP tunneled by the "Home Agent" to a "Care-of-
Address", The Care- of address defines the current location of the
mobile node.

● Every Foreign network has 'Foreign agent (FA) '. The foreign agent can
provide several services to the mobile node during its visit to the
foreign network.

● The FA can have the COA (care or address) acting as a tunnel endpoint
when forwarding packets to the MN.
Optimization
Optimization
● Triangular routing, with Mobile IPv4 there is always a triangular traffic
pattern.

● As shown in above fig. the IP packet from CN (Correspondent Node)

destined to an MN needs to be routed to its HA first and then tunneled to
the foreign it to the MN.

● If the Corresponding Node (CN)and MN are very near, then also the IP
packet has to travel a long way to reach the MN. This inefficient behavior
of a non optimized mobile IP is called Triangular Routing.

● The triangle is made of the three segments : CN to HA, HA to COA/MN and

MN back to CN.
Route optimization to avoid triangular routing
● To solve triangular routing problem, a route optimization protocol has been
introduced.

● Basically this protocols defines some messages as to inform CN of an upto

date location of MN. update location of MN. Once the current location of MN
is known, the CN itself performs tunneling and sends packet directly to MN.

● The optimized mobile IP protocol needs four additional messages; these are

● 1. Binding request
● 2. Binding update
● 3. Binding acknowledgement
● 4. Binding warnings
 ● 1. Binding request

● If a node wants to know where the MN is

Route currently located, it can send a binding request
to the HA.
optimization to
● 2. Binding update
avoid triangular
routing ● The HA sends a binding update to the CN and
informs the CN the current location of an MN,
The binding update request an
acknowledgement.
 • 3. Binding acknowledgement

• On request, after receiving a binding update message, a node

returns a binding acknowledgement.

• 4. Binding warnings

Route • A binding warning message is sent by a node if it

decapsulated a packet for an MN but it is not the FA for that
optimization to currently.

avoid triangular • If CN receives the binding warning, it requests the HA for a

new binding update.

routing • If the HA receives the warning it directly sends a binding

update to the CN.

• Fig. explains how these four messages are used together

when an MN changes its FA and also shows the exchange of
messages in optimization protocol.
Route optimization to avoid triangular routing
 ● The CN requests the current location of MN from the the
HA.

● HA returns the COA of the MN via update message.

Route ● CN acknowledge this updated message and stores

mobility binding.
optimization to ● Now CN can send data directly to the current foreign

avoid triangular agent FA old. FA old now forwards these data to MN.

●
routing
The MN might now change its location and register with
an new foreign agent FA new.

● FA new informs FA old about new registration of MN via

an update message and FA old acknowledged this update
message.
● CN doesn't know about the current location of MN, its till tunnels its packet for MN
to the old foreign agent FAold.

● The FA old notices packets destined to MN but also knows MN currently not in
current FA.

● FA old might now forward these se packets to the new COA of MN which is new
foreign agent.

● Thus the packets that are in transit are not lost. This behavior is another
optimization to basic mobile IP and provides smooth handover.
• FA old sends binding warning message to CN. CN then requests a binding update.

• The HA sends an update to inform the CN about the new location, which is
acknowledged Now CN cans end data directly to FAnew and avoid triangular
binding.

• However, the optimization will not work if the MN does not want to reveal its
current location to the CN because of security.
 ● To overcome these problems, IPv6 also known as 'Png (Internet
Protocol next generation) was proposed.

● In iPv6, the Internet protocol was extensively modified to

accommodate the growth and new demands of the Internet. The
format and the length of the IP addresses were changed along with
the packet format.

IPv6 ● Related protocols such as ICMP were also modified Other protocols
in the network layer, such as ARP, RARP, 1GMP were either deleted
or included in ICMPv6 protocol.

● Routing protocols such as RIP and OSPF were slightly modified to

accommodate these changes.

● The fast spreading use of Internet and new services such as mobile
IP, IP telephony. IP-capable mobile telephony, may require the total
replacement of IPv4 by IPv6.
 1. Larger address space : An IPv6 address is 128 bit long.
Compared with the 32 bit long IPv4 address, this is huge
increase in address space.

2. Better Header format : IPv6 uses a new header format in

Advantages of which options are separated from the base header and
inserted when needed, between the base header and the

IPv6
upper layer data.

This simplifies and speeds up the routing process because

most of the options do not need to be checked by routers

3. New Options : IPv6 has new options to allow for

additional functionalities
4. Allowance for extension: IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of protocol if required by new
technologies applications.

5. Support for resource allocation : In lPv6 the type-of-service field has been removed, but mechanism
called Flow label has been added to enable the source to request special handling of packet.
This mechanism can be used to support traffic such as real-time audio and video.

6. Support for more security : The encryption and authentication options in IPv6 provide confidentiality
and integrity of the packet.
 ● No special mechanisms are needed for securing
mobile IP registration.

● In every IP node address auto configuration i.e the

mechanism for acquiring a COA is inbuilt.

● Neighbor discovery mechanism is also mandatory for

every IPv6 node. So special foreign agents are no longer
needed to advertise services.

Features of IPv6 to ● Combining the features of address auto configuration

support mobility
and neighbour discovery enables every IPv6 mobile
node to obtain a topologically correct address or the
current point of attachment.

● Every IPv6 node can send binding updates to another

node, so the MN can send its COA directly to the CN and
HA. The FA is no longer needed.

● The CN processes the binding updates and makes

corresponding entries in its routing cache.
 • The MN is now able to decapsulates the packets
• To detect when it needs a new COA and
• To determine when to send binding updates to the
HA and CN

• A soft handover is possible with Ipv6.

Features of IPv6 to • The MN sends its new COA to the old router serving
the MN at the old COA, and the old router can
support mobility encapsulate all incoming packets for the MN and
forwards them to new COA.

• Limitation of Ipv6
• It does not solve any firewall or privacy problems.
Additional mechanisms on higher layers are needed
for this.
 IPv6 Header
Internet Protocol Version 6
IPv6 Header
 1. Version : 4 bits -IPv6 version number.
2. Traffic Class : 8 bits - Used to specify different
classes or priorities of IPv6 packets.

3.Flow Label : 20 bits - Used for specifying special

router handling from source to destination(s) for a
IPv6 Header sequence of packets.
It distinguish the different types of packets such as
audio, video, txt etc. and accordingly provides
quality of services to them

4.Payload Length : 16 bits unsigned - Specifies the

length of the data in the packet.
 5. Next Header : 8 bits - Specifies the next
encapsulated protocol. The values are compatible with
those specified for the IPv4 protocol field.

6. Hop Limit : 8 bits unsigned - For each router that

forwards the packet, the hop limit is decremented by
1. When the hop limit field reaches zero, the packet is
IPv6 Header discarded. This replaces the TTL field in the IPv4
header that was originally intended to be used as a
time based hop limit.

7. Source address : 16 bytes - The 113v6 address of

the sending node.

8. Destination address : 16 bytes - The IPv6 address

of the destination node.
 Macro Mobility
MIPv6 (Mobile IPv6) & FMIPv6 (Fast Handover for Mobile IPv6)
 ● The first IP Mobility protocol, Mobile IP was
developed for IPv4.

● The Mobile IP protocol solves the TCP/IP layer 3

mobility problem, by assigning a permanent IP
address to the mobile node.

● Mobile IP supports of both MIPv4 and MIPv6, but

MIPv6 IPv4 has a couple of drawbacks.

(Mobile IPv6) ● The address exhaustion, making MIPv6 the future

option for mobility protocol in IP Networks.

● Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is a protocol developed as a

subset of IPv6 to support mobility.

● MIPv6 is an update of the Mobile IP standard

designed to authenticate mobile devices using IPv6
addresses.
● In traditional IP routing, IP addresses represent a topology.

● Routing mechanisms rely on the assumption that each network node will always have
the same point of attachment to the Internet, and that each node's IP address
identifies the network link where it is connected.

● In this routing scheme, if you disconnect a mobile device from the Internet and want
to reconnect through a different network, you have to configure the device with a new
IP address, and the appropriate netmask and default router.
● Otherwise, routing protocols have no means of delivering packets, because the device's network
address doesn't contain the necessary information about the node's network point of attachment to
the Internet.

● Mobile IPv6 allows a mobile node to transparently maintain connections while moving from one
subnet to another.

● Each device is identified by its home address although it may be connecting to through another
network.

● When connecting through a foreign network, a mobile device sends its location information to a home
agent, which intercepts packets intended for the device and tunnels them to the current location.
 ● Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) enables a Mobile Node (MN)
to maintain its connectivity to the Internet when
moving from one Access point to another.

● This process is referred to as `handover’.

FMIPv6 ● During handover, there is a period during which

the Mobile Node is unable to send or receive
(Fast Handover for ●
packets.
This period is called 'Hand over latency'.
Mobile IPv6) ● Hand over latency results from the standards
handover procedure such as movement detection,
new Care of address configuration, binding updates
etc.
 ● This Hand over latency is often unacceptable to
real-time traffic such as Voice over IP (VoIP).

● The fast handover for mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6) aims

at reducing the long handover latency in mobile
IPv6 by fast movement detection and fast binding
FMIPv6 update.

(Fast Handover for ● It uses anticipation based on layer 2 trigger

information of the mobile node (MN) to obtain a

Mobile IPv6) new care-of address at the new link while still
connected to the previous link, thus reducing
handover delay.

● Furthermore, it also reduces packet loss by

buffering before the real link layer handover takes
place.
Micro Mobility
 ● The basic underlying idea is the same for all micro-
mobility protocols:

Micro ● Keep the frequent updates generated by local changes

of the points of attachment away from the home
Mobility network and only inform the home agent about major
changes, i.e., changes of a region.

● In some sense all micro-mobility protocols establish a

hierarchy.
● Mobile IP represents a simple and scalable global mobility solution but lacks the support for
fast handoff control and paging.

● Imagine a large number of mobile devices changing networks quite frequently ; a high load on
the home agents as well as on the networks is generated by registration and binding update
messages.

● IP micro-mobility protocols can complement mobile IP by offering fast and almost seamless
handover control in limited geographical areas.
Cellular IP
 ● Mobile IP exhibits several problems when there is
a large number of mobile devices changing
network frequently and moving very fast.

● In such cases, a high load on home agents and on

the network is generated by registration and
binding update messages.

Why Cellular IP ? ● Mobile IP is basically designed only for macro

level mobility and relatively slow moving hosts.

● Cellular IP (CIP) is a new robust, simple, and

flexible protocol for highly mobile hosts.

● CIP complements Mobile IP by supporting local

mobility.

● It can accommodate large number of users by

separating idle hosts from active hosts.
 ● The architecture of Cellular IP is shown in

CIP Fig. It consists of three major components.

● Cellular IP gateway (GW)

Architecture ● Cellular IP node or the base station (BS)
● Cellular IP mobile host (MH)
CIP access network (Architecture)
● An important component of a Cellular IP network is the base station (BS).

● A cellular IP network consists of several interconnected BSs.

● The BSs communicate with mobile hosts (MHs) via wireless interface and also route
IP packets inside the cellular network.
● The base stations are built on regular IP forwarding engines, but IP routing is now
replaced by Cellular IP routing and cellular location management.
● CIP gateway router connects a cellular IP network and the regular Internet.
● Mobility between gateways is managed by Mobile IP while mobility within access
networks is handled by Cellular IP.
● Now the IP address of gateway serves as the care-of-address for all mobile hosts that
are currently attached to the network.
 ● Uplink packets (packets originated from mobile host) are
routed from mobile host to the gateway on a hop-by-hop
basis.

● The path taken by these packets is cached in base stations. This

cache is called routing cache.

● To route downlink packets addressed to a mobile host the path

used by recent packets transmitted by the host (that are
Routing in CIP already stored in route cache) is reversed.

● A mobile host may wants to maintain its routing cache

mappings even though it is not regularly transmitting data
packets.

● Such mobile hosts transmit route-update packets at regular

interval to keep their routing cache mappings valid.

● These packets are empty data packets addressed to the

gateway.
 ● In Cellular IP, an idle mobile host is one that has not received
data packets for a system specific time.

● For such idle hosts, their downlink soft state routes timeout
and are removed from the routing cache.

● These hosts transmit paging-update packets at regular

Paging in CIP intervals.

● The paging update packet is an empty IP addressed to the

gateway. It is distinguished from route update packet by its IP
type parameter.

● Similar to data and route update packets, paging update

packets are routed on 4 hop-by-hop basis to the gateway.

● Base stations may optionally maintain paging cache.

● Thus all idle mobile hosts have mappings in paging caches but not in routing caches.

● In addition, active mobile hosts will have mappings in both routing as well as paging cache.

● Packets addressed to a mobile host are normally routed by routing cache mappings.

● Paging occurs when a packet is addressed to an idle mobile host and the gateway or base stations find
no valid routing cache mapping for destination.

● The paging cache is used to avoid broadcast search procedures found in cellular systems.

● if there is no entry in the paging cache, then the packet addressed to an idle mobile host is broadcast in
the network.

● This may happen when transmitting first packet to the any host.

● Idle mobile hosts that receive a packet, move from idle to active state and immediately transmit a route
update packet.
 ● CIP implements MCHO (Mobile controlled handover)
thus, in CIP, handoff is initiated by Mobile Host.

● MH listens to the beacon transmitted by BSs and

initiates handover based on signal measurements.

Handover in CIP ● To perform a handoff, an MH tunes its radio to the new

BS.

● This creates entry in a routing cache on route to the

gateway, thus, configuring the downlink route to the
new BS.
● During the handoff process time, downlink packets may be lost.

● The mappings associated with the old base stations are not cleared at handover,
rather, they timeout as the associated soft-state timers expire.

● The mappings associated with the old BS are cleared after the expiry of a timer.

● Before the timeout, both the old and new downlink routes remain valid and packets
are delivered through both the BSs.

● Thus, Cellular IP uses semi soft handover to improve handoff performance.

 ● Provides easy Global migration

● Cheap passive Connectivity

Advantages of CIP ● Efficient location management

● Flexible Handoff

● Simple Memory Less Mobile Hosts

HAWAII & HMIPv6
 ● HAWAII (Handoff-Aware Wireless Access

HAWAII
Internet Infrastructure) tries to keep micro-
mobility support as transparent as possible for both
home agent and MN.
HAWAII Step 1: On entering an HAWAII domain, a mobile
node obtains a co-located COA.

working Step 2 : MN registers with the HA.

Step 3 : When MN moving another cell inside the foreign domain, the MN sends a registration
request to the new base station as to a foreign agent.

Step 4 : The base station interprets the registration request and sends out a handoff update
message, which reconfigures all routers on the paths from the old and new base station to the
crossover router. When the routing has been reconfigure successfully, the base station sends a
registration reply to the MN, again as if it were a foreign agent.
Basic architecture of HAWAII
 ● Security : Challenge response extensions are
mandatory.

HAWAII
● In contrast to cellular IP, routing changes are
always initiate by the foreign domain's

Advantages infrastructure.

● Transparency : HAWAII is mostly

transparent to mobile nodes.
 • COA raises DHCP security issues(DHCP has no strong
authentication).

• Decentralized security-critical functionality (Mobile IP

registration processing during handover)in base stations.

•
HAWAII
Authentication of HAWAII protocol messages unspecified
(potential attackers: stationary nodes in foreign network)

Disadvantages • MN authentication requires PKI or AAA infrastructure.

• There are no provisions regarding the setup of IPsec

tunnels.

• No private address support is possible because of co-located

COAs.
 • Hierarchical Mobile IPV6 (HMIPv6) provides micro-
mobility support by installing a mobility anchor
point (MAP).

• MAP is an entity which is responsible for a certain

domain and acts as a local HA within this domain for

HMIPv6 visiting for visiting MN’s.

• Fig. below shows basic architecture of Hierarchical

Mobile IP.

• The MAP receives all packets on behalf of the MN,

encapsulates and forwards them directly to the MN’s
current address LCOA (Link COA).
Basic architecture of HMIPv6
 ● Security : MNs can have (limited)

HMIPv6 location privacy because LCOAs can be

hidden.

Advantages ● Efficiency : Direct routing between CNs

sharing the same link is possible .
 ● Transparency : Additional infrastructure
component (MAP).

HMIPv6 ● Security : Routing tables are changed based on

messages sent by mobile nodes.
Disadvantages ● This requires strong authentication and
protection against denial of service attacks.
Additional security functions might be
necessary in MAPS