Abstract- Host mobility is becoming an important issue due to the recent proliferation of notebook and palmtop computers, the development of wireless network interfaces, and the growth in global internetworking. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mobile host protocol, called the Internet Mobile Host Protocol (IMHP), that is compatible with the TCPDP protocol suite, and allows a mobile host to move around the Inter-net without changing its identity. In particular, IMHP provides host mobility over both the local and wide area, while remaining transparent to the user and to other hosts communicating with the mobile host. IMHP features route optimization and integrated authentication of all management packets. Route optimization allows a node to cache the location of a mobile host and to send future packets directly to that mobile host. By authenticating all management packets, IMHP guards against possible attacks on packet routing to mobile hosts, including the interception or redirection of arbitrary packets within the network. A simple new authentication mechanism is introduced that preserves the level of security found in the Internet today, while accommodating the transition to stronger authentication based on public key cryptog-raphy or shared keys that may either be manually administered or provided by a future Internet key management protocol. I.

Due to advances in wireless communication technology there is a growing demand for providing continuous network access to the users of portable computers, regardless of their location. Existing network protocols cannot meet this requirement since they were designed with the assumption of a static network topology where hosts do not change their location over time. Based on IP's Loose Source Route option, we have developed a scheme for providing transparent network access to mobile hosts. Our scheme is easy to implement, requires no changes to the existing set of hosts and routers, and achieves optimal routing in most cases. An outline of the proposed scheme is presented and a reference implementation is described.

This paper considers the problem of providing transparent support for very large numbers of mobile hosts within a large internetwork such as the Internet. The availability of powerful mobile computing devices and wireless networking products and services is increasing dramatically, but internetworking protocols such as IP used in the Internet do not currently support host movement. To address this need, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is currently developing protocols for mobile hosts in the Internet. This paper analyzes the problem to be solved, reviews the current state of that effort, and discusses its scalability to very large numbers of mobile hosts in a large internetwork. 1.

This paper compares four recent proposals for mobile host protocols (MHPs) that are compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite. A set of requirements for an MHP is proposed and it is observed that while all proposals perform the basic task none of the proposals entirely satisfy the requirements. 1. Introduction

Host mobility is becoming an increasingly important feature with the recent arrival of notebook and palm top computers, the development of wireless network interfaces and the implementation of the global network. This paper describes and compares three proposals from Sony, IBM and Columbia University for mobile host protocols (MHP) that are compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite. A set of basic requirements for a MHP are also suggested and it is observed that none of the three proposals entirely satisfies these requirements. Each proposal has faults in their implementation of mobile network layer functionality. Moreover, it is noted they do not address problems that must be solved in both higher and lower layers. Key Words: Mobile Protocols, Wireless Networks, Networks, IP 1 Introduction Computers are no longer large, expensive, and nonportable. Recent developments make it possible to buy inexpensive notebook and palm top computers that are both portable and extremely powerful. As a...

This paper describes the Internet Mobile Host Protocol

Each Location Directory (LD) provides the information to locate the forwarding address of a Mobile Host (MH) in a mobile networking system. The LD should be updated when the MH moves from one access zone to another access zone. If an Internet Access Point (IAP) (or base station) could cache some useful LD information entries, then, after receiving a packet from an MH in its access zone, the IAP could check its cached LD and make an optimal routing decision. With the LD distributed over the Internet Access Points, we avoid Dogleg Routing because we no longer need to forward the packet to the Mobile Router (MR) where a master copy of the LD is located. In this paper, we investigate how the LD data structure is used, updated, and distributed among Mobile Routers, Internet Access Points, and Mobile Hosts. Furthermore, we present our LD design and implementation in the mobile IP network. Wu is supported by an IBM Fellowship. y Bhagwat is supported by an IBM Fellowship. 1 Introduction ...

This document specifies a new mobile networking protocol, Mobile IP (MIP), to allow packets between mobile hosts or mobile networks and other hosts (including fixed hosts) to be delivered transparently along close to optimal routes. MIP defines two alternative techniques for encoding MIP routing data into IP packets; a MIP option or MIP encapsulation. In either case only a small amount of overhead is introduced to each packet and no changes are needed to layers above the IP layer. MIP ensures fast convergence to a close to optimum routes and efficiently handles all error conditions. MIP also provides a compatibility mode that extends CDPD's [CDPD, 93] functionality. Status of this Memo This document is an Internet Draft. Internet Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering task Force (IETF), its Areas, and its Working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet Drafts. Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six mont...

Host mobility is becoming an important issue due to the recent proliferation of notebook and palmtop computers, the development of wireless network interfaces, and the growth in global internetworking. This paper describes the design and implementation of a mobile host protocol, called the Internet Mobile Host Protocol (IMHP), that is compatible with the TCP/IP protocol suite, and allows a mobile host to move around the Internet without changing its identity. In particular, IMHP provides host mobility over both the local and wide area, while remaining transparent to the user and to other hosts communicating with the mobile host.