Mobile IP

Mobile IP Uses
Enable computers to maintain Internet connectivity
while moving from one Internet attachment point to
another
Mobile user's point of attachment changes
dynamically and all connections are automatically
maintained despite the change
Nomadic - user's Internet connection is terminated
each time the user moves and a new connection is
initiated when the user dials back in
New, temporary IP address is assigned
Operation of Mobile IP
Mobile node is assigned to a particular network home
network
IP address on home network is static home address
Mobile node can move to another network foreign network
Mobile node registers with network node on foreign network
foreign agent (typically a router)
Mobile node gives care-of address to agent on home network
home agent
Operation of Mobile IP
Operation of Mobile IP
When IP datagrams are exchanged over a
connection between the mobile node and
another host, the following operations
occur:
Operation of Mobile IP
1. Server X transmits an IP datagram destined for mobile node
A, with A's home address in the IP header. The IP datagram is
routed to A's home network.
2. At the home network, the incoming IP datagram is
intercepted by the home agent. The home agent encapsulates
the entire datagram inside a new IP datagram that has the A's
care-of address in the header, and retransmits the datagram.
The use of an outer IP datagram with a different destination IP
address is known as tunneling. This IP datagram is routed to
the foreign agent.
3. The foreign agent strips off the outer IP header, encapsulates
the original IP datagram in a network-level PDU* (e.g., a LAN
LLC frame), and delivers the original datagram to A across the
foreign network. [*PDUProtocol data unit]
Operation of Mobile IP
4. When A sends IP traffic to X, it uses X's IP address. In our
example, this is a fixed address; that is, X is not a mobile node.
Each IP datagram is sent by A to a router on the foreign
network for routing to X. Typically, this router is also the
foreign agent.
5. The IP datagram from A to X travels directly across the
Internet to X, using X's IP address.
Capabilities of Mobile IP
Discovery mobile node uses discovery procedure to
identify prospective home and foreign agents
Registration mobile node uses an authenticated
registration procedure to inform home agent of its
care-of address
Tunneling used to forward IP datagrams from a
home address to a care-of address
Capabilities of Mobile IP
Figure indicates the underlying protocol support for
the Mobile IP capability.
Some useful terminology from RFC 2002
Some useful terminology from RFC 2002

Discovery
The discovery process in Mobile IP is very similar to the Router
Advertisement process defined in ICMP (Internet Control
Message Protocol - is a connectionless protocol)

Mobile node is responsible for ongoing discovery process
Must determine if it is attached to its home network or a
foreign network

Transition from home network to foreign network can occur at
any time without notification to the network layer.

Mobile node listens for agent advertisement messages
Compares network portion of the router's IP address with the
network portion of home address
Discovery
The agent advertisement extension follows the ICMP router
advertisement fields and consists of the following fields:
Type: Indicates that this is an agent advertisement.
Length: Number of bytes in the extension, excluding the Type and
Length fields. The value is (6 + 4N), where N is the number of
care-of addresses advertised.
Sequence Number: The count of agent advertisement messages
sent since the agent was initialized.
Discovery
The agent advertisement extension follows the ICMP router
advertisement fields and consists of the following fields:
Lifetime: The longest lifetime, in seconds, that this agent is willing
to accept a registration request from a mobile node.
R: Registration with this foreign agent is required (or another
foreign agent on this network). Even those mobile nodes that have
already acquired a care-of address from this foreign agent must re-
register.
Discovery
B: Busy. The foreign agent will not accept
registrations from additional mobile nodes.
H: This agent offers services as a home agent on this
network.
F: This agent offers services as a foreign agent on this
network.
M: This agent can receive tunneled IP datagrams that
use minimal encapsulation, explained subsequently.
Discovery
G: This agent can receive tunneled IP datagrams that
use GRE encapsulation, explained subsequently.
r: reserved.
T: Foreign agent supports reverse tunneling.
Care-Of Address: The care-of address or addresses
supported by this agent on this network. There must
be at least one such address if the F bit is set. There
may be multiple addresses.
Discovery
Registration Process
Once a mobile node has recognized that it is on a
foreign network and has acquired a care-of address, it
needs to alert a home agent on its home network and
request that the home agent forward its IP traffic.
Involves four steps:
Mobile node sends registration request to foreign agent
requesting forwarding service
Foreign agent relays request to home agent
Home agent accepts or denies request and sends registration
reply to foreign agent
Foreign agent relays reply to mobile node
If the mobile node uses a care-of address, then it
registers directly with its home agent, rather than
going through a foreign agent.
Registration Operation Messages
The registration operation uses two types of messages:
Registration request message
Fields such as: type, lifetime, home address, home agent,
care-of-address, identification, extensions, etc.

Registration reply message
Fields = type, code, lifetime, home address, home agent,
identification, extensions.
Registration Operation Messages
The Registration Request Message consists of the
following fields:
The Registration Reply Message consists of the
following fields:
Registration Operation Messages
The registration request message consists of the following
fields:
Type: Indicates that this is a registration request.
S: Simultaneous bindings.
B: Broadcast datagrams. Indicates that the mobile node
would like to receive copies of broadcast datagrams that it
would have received if it were attached to its home
network.
Registration Operation Messages
D: Decapsulation by mobile node. The mobile node is
using a co-located care-of address and will
decapsulate its own tunneled IP datagrams.
M: Indicates that the home agent should use minimal
encapsulation, explained subsequently.
G: Indicates that the home agent should use GRE
encapsulation, explained subsequently.
r: Reserved.
T: Reverse tunneling requested.
x: Reserved.
Registration Operation Messages
Lifetime: The number of seconds before the
registration is considered expired. A value of zero is a
request for de-registration.
Home Address: The home IP address of the mobile
node. The home agent can expect to receive IP
datagrams with this as a destination address, and must
forward those to the care-of address.
Home Agent: The IP address of the mobile node's
home agent. This informs the foreign agent of the
address to which this request should be relayed.
Registration Operation Messages
Care-Of Address: The IP address at this end of the
tunnel. The home agent should forward IP datagrams
that it receives with mobile node's home address to
this destination address.
Identification: A 64-bit number generated by the
mobile node, used for matching registration requests
to registration replies and for security purposes, as
explained subsequently.
Extensions: The only extension so far defined is the
authentication extension, explained subsequently.
Registration Operation Messages
The registration reply message consists of the following fields:
Type: 3, indicates that this is a registration reply.
Code: Indicates result of the registration request
Lifetime: If the code field indicates that the registration was
accepted, the number of seconds before the registration is
considered expired. A value of zero indicates that the mobile
node has been de-registered.
Home Address: The home IP address of the mobile node.
Home Agent: The IP address of the mobile node's home agent.
Registration Operation Messages
Mobile IP designed to resist attacks
Node pretending to be a foreign agent sends registration
request to a home agent to divert mobile node traffic to itself
Agent replays old registration messages to cut mobile node
from network
For message authentication, registration request and
reply contain authentication extension
Fields = type, length, security parameter index (SPI),
authenticator
Registration Operation Messages
Types of Authentication Extensions
Mobile-home provides for authentication of
registration messages between mobile node and home
agent; must be present
Mobile-foreign may be present when a security
association exists between mobile node and foreign
agent
Foreign-home may be present when a security
association exists between foreign agent and home
agent
Tunneling
Home agent intercepts IP datagrams sent to mobile node's
home address
Home agent informs other nodes on home network that
datagrams to mobile node should be delivered to home agent
Datagrams forwarded to care-of address via tunneling
Datagram encapsulated in outer IP datagram
Mobile IP Encapsulation Options
IP-within-IP entire IP datagram becomes payload
in new IP datagram
Original, inner IP header unchanged except TTL
decremented by 1
Outer header is a full IP header
Minimal encapsulation new header is inserted
between original IP header and original IP payload
Original IP header modified to form new outer IP header
Generic routing encapsulation (GRE) developed
prior to development of Mobile IP
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
Open standard providing mobile users of wireless
terminals access to telephony and information
services
Wireless terminals include wireless phones, pagers and
personal digital assistants (PDAs)
Designed to work with all wireless network technologies
such as GSM, CDMA, and TDMA
Based on existing Internet standards such as IP, XML,
HTML, and HTTP
Includes security facilities
WAP Protocol Stack
WAP Programming Model
Wireless Markup Language (WML)
Features
Text and image support formatting and layout commands
Deck/card organizational metaphor WML documents
subdivided into cards, which specify one or more units of
interaction
Support for navigation among cards and decks includes
provisions for event handling; used for navigation or
executing scripts
<wml>
<card id=card1>
<p>Hello World WAP
<p>
</card>
</wml>
WMLScript
Scripting language for defining script-type programs in a
user device with limited processing power and memory
WMLScript capabilities:
Check validity of user input before its sent
Access device facilities and peripherals
Interact with user without introducing round trips to origin
server
WMLScript
WMLScript features:
JavaScript-based scripting language WMLScript is a subset
of JavaScript, with some extensions
Procedural logic WMLScript adds the power of procesural
logic to the Wireless Application Environment (WAE)
Event-based WMLScript may be invoked in response to
certain user or environmental events
Compiled implementation WMLScript can be compiled
down to a more efficient byte code that is transported to the
client
Integrated into WAE WMLScript is fully integrated with
the WML browser
Wireless Application Environment
(WAE)
WAE specifies an application framework for
wireless devices
WAE elements:
WAE User agents software that executes in the wireless
device
Content generators applications that produce standard
content formats in response to requests from user agents
in the mobile terminal
Standard content encoding defined to allow a WAE
user agent to navigate Web content
Wireless telephony applications (WTA) collection of
telephony-specific extensions for call and feature control
mechanisms
WAE Client Components
Wireless Session Protocol (WSP)
Transaction-oriented protocol based on the concept of a
request and a reply
Provides applications with interface for two session
services:
Connection-oriented session service operates above
reliable transport protocol WTP
Connectionless session service operates above unreliable
transport protocol WDP
Connection-mode WSP Services
Establish reliable session from client to server and
release
Agree on common level of protocol functionality
using capability negotiation
Exchange content between client and server using
compact encoding
Suspend and resume a session
Push content from server to client in an
unsynchronized manner
WSP Transaction Types
Session establishment client WSP user requests
session with server WSP user
Session termination client WSP user initiates
termination
Session suspend and resume initiated with
suspend and resume requests
Transaction exchange of data between a client
and server
Nonconfirmed data push used to send unsolicited
information from server to client
Confirmed data push server receives delivery
confirmation from client
Wireless Transaction Protocol
(WTP)
Lightweight protocol suitable for "thin" clients and
over low-bandwidth wireless links
WTP features
Three classes of transaction service
Optional user-to-user reliability: WTP user triggers
confirmation of each received message
Optional out-of-band data on acknowledgments
Protocol Data Unit (PDU) concatenation and delayed
acknowledgment to reduce the number of messages sent
Asynchronous transactions
WTP Transaction Classes
Class 0: Unreliable invoke message with no result
message
Class 1: Reliable invoke message with no result message
Class 2: Unreliable invoke message with one reliable
result message
WTP PDU Types
Invoke PDU used to convey a request from an
initiator to a responder
ACK PDU used to acknowledge an Invoke or
Result PDU
Result PDU used to convey response of the
server to the client
Abort PDU used to abort a transaction
Segmented invoke PDU and segmented result
PDU used for segmentation and reassembly
Negative acknowledgment PDU used to indicate
that some packets did not arrive
Examples of WTP Operation
Wireless Transport Layer Security
(WTLS) Features
Data integrity ensures that data sent between
client and gateway are not modified, using
message authentication
Privacy ensures that the data cannot be read by a
third party, using encryption
Authentication establishes authentication of the
two parties, using digital certificates
Denial-of-service protection detects and rejects
messages that are replayed or not successfully
verified
WTLS Protocol Stack
WTLS consists of two
layers of protocols
WTLS Record Protocol
provides basic security
services to various higher-
layer protocols
Higher-layer protocols:
The Handshake Protocol
The Change Cipher Spec
Protocol
The Alert Protocol
Phases of the Handshake Protocol
Exchange
First phase used to initiate a
logical connection and establish
security capabilities
Second phase used for server
authentication and key exchange
Third phase used for client
authentication and key exchange
Forth phase completes the
setting up of a secure connection
Wireless Datagram Protocol (WDP)
Used to adapt higher-layer WAP protocol to the
communication mechanism used between mobile
node and WAP gateway
WDP hides details of the various bearer networks
from the other layers of WAP
Adaptation may include:
Partitioning data into segments of appropriate size for the
bearer
Interfacing with the bearer network
Wireless Control Message Protocol
(WCMP)
Performs the same support function for WDP as
ICMP does for IP
Used in environments that dont provide IP bearer
and dont lend themselves to the use of ICMP
Used by wireless nodes and WAP gateways to
report errors encountered in processing WDP
datagrams
Can also be used for informational and diagnostic
purposes

Sources
From
William Stallings - Wireless communications and
networks /Second Edition, Prentice Hall 2005
Chapter 12


Datagram
A self-contained, independent entity of data carrying
sufficient information to be routed from the source to
the destination computer without reliance on earlier
exchanges between this source and destination
computer and the transporting network.
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