MOBILE IP

INTRODUCTION
With the fast prevalence of internet ,the wide employment of notebook computers and
the development of wireless communication devices ,users demand the mobility of
hosts ,ie they expect the host can change their locations continuously without
interrupting current communication sessions
Mobile IP is a protocol ,developed by the Mobile IP Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF) working group,which is able to inform the network about this change in network
attachment such that the Internet data packets will be to the new point of attachment

What was the need to launch the

New version of IP
Old internet protocol versions do not support host mobility. These were designed such
that moving hosts were not considered: a node's point of attachment to the network
remains unchanged at all times, and an IP address identifies a particular network. To
support a mobile host with old methods, reconfiguration is necessary any time a mobile
host moves. This is an unacceptable solution as it is time consuming and error prone.
Thus, the rise of Mobile IP.

Basic Entities of Mobile IP

I P ADDRESS
An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP
protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination. The format of an IP
address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each
number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.
MOBILE NODE
-The entity that may change its point of attachment from network to network in the
Internet.
CORRESPONDENT NODE
A node that sends or receives a packet to a mobile node;the corresponding node may be
another mobile node or a nonmobile Internet node
HOME ADDRESS
A permanent IP address that is assigned to a mobile node. It remains unchanged
regardless of where the mobile node is attached to the internet
HOME NETWORK
The network at which the mobile node seems reachable to the rest of the internet ,by
virtue of its assigned IP address.
HOME AGENT
A node on the Home network that effectively causes the mobile node to be reachable at
its home address even when the mobile node is not attached to its home network

CARE OF- ADDRESS

An IP address at the mobile nodes current point of attachment to the internet , when the
mobile node is not attached to the home network

FOREIGN NETWORK
The network to which the mobile node is attached when it is not attached to its home
network ,and on which the care of address is reachable from the rest of the Internet
FOREIGN AGENT
A mobility agent on the foreign network that can assist the mobile node in receiving
datagrams delivered to the care of address
MOBILITY AGENT
An agent which supports mobility. It could be either a home agent or a foreign agent

. ENCAPSULATION
The process of enclosing an IP datagram within another IP header which contains the
care-of-address of the mobile node. The IP datagram itself remains intact and untouched
throughout the enclosing process
DECAPSULATION
The process of stripping the outermost IP header of the incoming packets so that the
enclosed datagram can be accessed and delivered to the proper destination.
It is the reverse process of ENCAPSULATION

TUNNEL
The path which is taken by encapsulated (see below) packets. It is the path which leads
packets from the home agent to the foreign agent

IP ROUTING

ROUTING

The procedure of forwarding an IP packet is called Routing

It is done through a device called ROUTER which forwards data packets to the
appropriate parts of a network.
The Router in a computer networks have the knowledge to which direction the data
packets should be forwarded ,although they may not know the exact location where the
packet might finally be going to.The routing tables generally maintain only the next hop
information for each destination IPaddress
The figure above depicts Mobile IP Routing .In this case the correspondent host for the
sender is not aware of the exact location of the mobile host and the packets are delivered
to the mobile host via the home agent
In a basic IP operation ,packets transmitted by the SENDER to the mobile
host/RECEIVER are first routed to the mobile hosts home network first ,and then
the same are forwarded by the home agent to the mobile hosts current care of address.
The packets forwarded by the home agent to the care of addresss are encapsulated in
anotheIP packet.This process is known as TUNNELING.
Packets originating from the mobile host are sent directly to the correspondent host,thus
forming a triangular route .These packets use the mobile hosts home address as their
source address to preserve their home identity.

STAGES IN MOBILE IP
AGENT DISCOVERY
When a Mobile Node attaches to a network, it first determines whether it is on its Home
Network or on a Foreign Network. It does so by listening for a local broadcast message
from a Home Agent or Foreign Agent. This message is called an Agent Advertisement.

REGISTRATION
When a Mobile Node is visiting a Foreign Network detected by the Mobile Node through
the Agent Discovery procedure, the Mobile Node must Register with the Foreign
Agent.
Registration informs the Foreign Agent of the presence of a Mobile Node requiring
routing services on its sub-net. Registration also informs the Home Agent of the current
location (sub-net) and Care-of Address of the Mobile Node. The Care-of Address refers
to an address local to the Foreign Network that the Mobile Node is currently visiting.
This address is accessible through normal IP routing. It could be the address of the
Foreign Agent or an address dynamically assigned to the Mobile Node.
To register, the Mobile Node sends a Registration Request message (RRQ) to the Foreign
Agent. The Foreign Agent processes the message and forwards it to the Home Agent (as
specified in the RRQ or dynamically assigned).
On receiving a valid RRQ, the Home Agent creates a mobility binding (or updates an
existing binding) that pairs the Mobile Node Home Address with the current Care-of
Address. The Home Agent sends a Registration Reply (RRP) with a code indicating
registration success to the Foreign Agent

REGISTRATION PROCESS

IN SERVICE

This is the period after the registration process and before the service time expiration,
provided that the mobile node stays in the service area. During service time, the mobile
node gets forwarded packets from its foreign agent which were originally sent from the
mobile node's home agent. Tunneling is the method used to forward the message from
home agent to foreign agent and finally to mobile node.

DEREGISTRATION
After the mobile node returns home, it deregisters with its home agent to drop its
registered care-of-address. In other words, it sets its care-of-address back to its home
address. The mobile node achieves this by sending a registration request directly to its
home agent with the lifetime set to zero. There it is no need to deregister with the foreign
agent because the service expires automatically when the service time expires.

HOW MOBILE IP WORKS

When a mobile node connects to a network, it will first determine whether it is on the
home network or a foreign network. When it finds it self on the home network, it operates
without mobility services. It receives and sends datagrams using normal IP routing. When
it finds its self on a foreign network it looks for mobility agents.

Mobility agents can be either foreign or home agents. They send out agent advertisement
messages on each link to advertise the fact that they can provide a service on that link.
When a mobile node arrives on a new network it looks for these agent advertisements, to
learn if any prospective agents are present.

When the mobile node connects to a foreign network it looks to obtain a care-of-address.
This care-of-address can be a care-of-address from the foreign network or a care-ofaddress from a foreign agent. It locates the foreign agent using the agent advertisement
messages.

A mobile node operating away from home registers its care-of-address with it home
agent, which it also locates through agent advertisement messages. The mobile node
registers its care-of-address with the home agent using an exchange of a registration
request and a registration reply message.

Datagrams sent for by the mobile node are first routed to the mobile nods home address,
using standard IP routing. The home agent then picks up the datagrams and inserts an IP
header over the original header before re-injecting the datagram back into the network.
This is called encapsulation. The original header carries the home address. The new IP
header carries the care-of-address, which is the location of the mobile node.
The datagram is then tunnelled to the care-of-address using the new IP header. It is then
decapsulated. The new IP header is stripped from the original header to reveal the home
address which is also that of the mobile node. If the care-of-address is a foreign network,
the outer header is stripped by the mobile nod when the datagram reaches it. If the careof-address is that of a foreign agent the outer header is stripped by the foreign agent. The
datagram then travels to the mobile node.

The advantage of using the foreign network for a care-of-address is in the absence of a
foreign agent. A care-of-address can be obtained on the foreign network using DHCP. The
problem with using the foreign network for an IP address is that IP addresses are limited,
by using the IP address of a foreign agent, many mobile nodes can use this IP address.
Using the foreign network for a care-of-address also means that the mobile node must be
able to decapsulate

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOBILE COMPUTING AND

PORTABLE COMPUTING

MOBILE COMPUTING
In Mobile Computing, the user can move from one
location to other and he can keep computing while moving.
PORTABLE COMPUTING
In Portable Computing, the user moves to other
location, connects his laptop to a port and the he performs computing.
Let's think about a service man, who carries his laptop - the host - into another office and
plugs it into the local network there. His address will be different from what it usually is in
his home network. This is a degree of freedom we could call portable.

SECURITY CONSIDERATION
Security has always been a concern in Mobile host networks.
Mobile is by nature more vulnerable as far as an information security is concerned
There might be a risk that a malicious host,roaming in a foreign network tries to get an IP
address of a local machine which belongs to another host &thus get through firewalls.
This way the malicious host will be able to acces even the most configuration data of the
network
IMHP,Internet Mobile Host Protocol is designed to support a range of security models,
ranging from no security to weak security to strong security.

CONCLUSION
Mobile IP is a protocol developed by the IETF Mobile working group ,which provides
mobility support to wireless internet users.
The development of Mobile IP has been going on for over half a decade .By today, the
proposals have come to a point where there are no widely known drawbacks.
A wide use of Mobile IP requires that a considerably high number of routers support
it;otherwise the routing will be less optimal.

REFERENCES

IEEE JOURNALS