MOBILE NETWORK LAYER

Mobile IP

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Mobile IP (I)
 Mobile IP adds mobility support to the Internet network layer
protocol IP.
 The Internet started at a time when no-one had a concept of mobile
computers.
• The Internet of today lacks mechanisms for the support of users traveling
through the world.
– IP is the common base for thousands of applications and runs over dozens of
different networks; this is the reason for supporting mobility at the IP layer.
 Motivation for Mobile IP:
 Routing
• based on IP destination address, network prefix determines physical subnet
• Change of physical subnet implies change of IP address to have a topological
correct address (standard IP) or needs special entries in the routing tables

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Mobile IP (II)
 Create specific routes to end-systems – mobile nodes?
• change of all routing table entries to forward packets to the
right destination
• does not scale with the number of mobile hosts and frequent
changes in the location
 Changing the IP address?
• adjust the host IP address depending on the current location
• almost impossible to find a mobile host, DNS has not been built
for frequent updates
• TCP connection break

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Mobile IP (III)
 Requirements to Mobile IP:
 Transparency
• mobile end-systems keep their IP address
• continuation of communication after interruption of link
possible
• point of connection to the fixed network can be changed
 Compatibility
• support of the same layer 2 protocols as IP does
• no changes to current end-systems and routers required
• Mobile end-systems can communicate with fixed systems

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Mobile IP (IV)
 Security
• authentication of all registration messages
 Efficiency and scalability
• only little additional messages to the mobile system required
(connection typically via a low bandwidth radio link)
• world-wide support of a large number of mobile systems in the
whole Internet

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Real-life Solution
 Take up the analogy of you moving from one
apartment to another. What do you do?
 Leave a forwarding address with your old post-
office
 The old post-office forwards mail to your new
post-office, which then delivers it to you

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Mobile IP - Definition
 “Mobile IP (MIP) is a modification to IP
that allows nodes to continue to receive
datagrams no matter where they happen to
be attached to the Internet”

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Mobile IP (V)
 Terminology:
 Mobile Node (MN)
• system (node) that can change the point of connection to the network
without changing its IP address
 Home Agent (HA)
• system in the home network of the MN, typically a router
• registers the location of the MN, tunnels IP datagrams to the COA
 Foreign Agent (FA)
• system in the current foreign network of the MN, typically a router
• forwards the tunneled datagrams to the MN, typically also the default
router of the MN

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Mobile IP (VI)
 Care-of Address (COA)
• address of the current tunnel end-point for the MN (at FA or
MN)
• actual location of the MN from an IP point of view
• can be chosen, e.g., via DHCP
 Correspondent Node (CN)
• communication partner

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Mobile IP in detail …

 Combination of 3 separable mechanisms:

 Discovering the care-of address
 Registering the care-of address
 Tunneling to the care-of address

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 Mobile IP in detail

MIPv4 MIPv6
MN FA HA CN MN FA HA CN

1 -- CoA and HA Discovery -- 1 -- CoA and HA Discovery --

1. CoA Discovery 1. CoA Discovery
2 2
2. HA Discovery Request 2. HA Discovery Request
3 3
3. HA Discovery Reply 3. HA Discovery Reply

-- Registration Procedure -- -- Registration Procedure --

4. HA Registration through FA 4 4. HA Registration BU
4
5 5. HA Registration Ack. 5 5. HA Registration BU Ack.

-- MN is Registered with HA -- -- MN is Registered with HA --

-- CN starts communication with MN -- -- CN starts communication with MN --

6 6. Data Packet 6
6. Data Packet
7. IP-in-IP Encapsulation
8. Tunneled Data 7 7. IP-in-IP Encapsulation
7
8
8a 8
9 8a Detunnelled Data
8. Tunneled Data
9. Binding Update 9
9. Binding Update
10. IP-in-IP tunneling
10
10a 10a. Detunnelled Data 10. Binding Ack
10

-- MN starts communication with CN -- -- MN starts communication with CN --

-- Discovery and Registration as above -- -- Discovery and Registration as above --
6a 6a
6a. Data Packet 6a. Data Packet

-- Signals 6-10a as above -- -- Signals 6-10 as above --

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Discovering the care-of address
 Discovery process built on top of an existing
standard protocol: router advertisements
 Router advertisements extended to carry available
care-of addresses called: agent advertisements
 Foreign agents (and home agents) send agent
advertisements periodically
 A mobile host can choose not to wait for an
advertisement, and issue a solicitation message

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Agent advertisements
 Foreign agents send advertisements to advertise
available care-of addresses
 Home agents send advertisements to make
themselves known
 Mobile hosts can issue agent solicitations to
actively seek information
 If mobile host has not heard from a foreign agent
its current care-of address belongs to, it seeks
for another care-of address

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Registering the Care-of
Address
 Once mobile host receives care-of address, it
registers it with the home agent
 A registration request is first sent to the home
agent (through the foreign agent)
 Home agent then approves the request and sends a
registration reply back to the mobile host
 Security?

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Registration Illustration

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Home agent discovery
 If the mobile host is unable to
communicate with the home agent, a home
agent discovery message is used
 The message is sent as a broadcast to the
home agents in the home network

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Tunneling to the Care-of address
 When home agent receives packets addressed to
mobile host, it forwards packets to the care-of
address
 How does it forward it? - encapsulation
 The default encapsulation mechanism that must
be supported by all mobility agents using mobile IP
is IP-within-IP
 Using IP-within-IP, home agent inserts a new IP
header in front of the IP header of any datagram

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Tunneling (contd.)
 Destination address set to the care-of
address
 Source address set to the home agent’s
address
 After stripping out the first header, IP
processes the packet again

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Tunneling Illustration

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Mobile IP (VII)
 Example network

HA
MN

router
home network
Internet
(physical home network
FA foreign
for the MN)
network
router
(current physical network
for the MN)
CN

end-system router
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Mobile IP (VIII)
 Data transfer to the mobile system

HA
2 MN

home network receiver

Internet 3
FA foreign
network

1. Sender sends to the IP address of MN,

HA intercepts packet
1 2. HA tunnels packet to COA, here FA,
CN
by encapsulation
3. FA forwards the packet to the MN 21
sender
Mobile IP (IX)
 Data transfer from the mobile system

HA
1 MN

home network sender

Internet

FA foreign
network

1. Sender sends to the IP address

of the receiver as usual,
CN
FA works as default router
receiver 22
Mobile IP (XIII)
 Optimization of packet forwarding:
 Triangular routing
• sender sends all packets via HA to MN
• higher latency and network load
 Solutions – optimization
• HA informs a sender about the location of MN
• sender learns the current location of MN
• direct tunneling to this location
• big security problems!

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Mobile IP (XIV)
 Change of FA
• Packets on-the-fly during the change can be lost
• new FA informs old FA to avoid packet loss, old FA forwards
remaining packets to new FA
• this information also enables the old FA to release resources
for the MN

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Mobile IP (XV)
 Change of the foreign agent with the optimized mobile
IP
CN HA FAold FAnew MN
request
update
ACK
data data
MN changes
registration registration location
update
data ACK
data data
warning
update
ACK
data
data
t
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 Mobile IP (XVI)
 Reverse tunneling:

HA
2
MN

home network sender

1
Internet

FA foreign
network

1. MN sends to FA
3 2. FA tunnels packets to HA
CN by encapsulation
3. HA forwards the packet to the
receiver (standard case)
receiver 26
Mobile IP (XVII)
 Mobile IP with reverse tunneling
 Router accept often only “topological correct“ addresses
(firewall!)
• a packet from the MN encapsulated by the FA is now topological
correct
• furthermore multicast and TTL problems solved (TTL in the home
network correct, but MN is to far away from the receiver)
 Reverse tunneling does not solve
• problems with firewalls, the reverse tunnel can be abused to
circumvent security mechanisms (tunnel hijacking)
• optimization of data paths, i.e. packets will be forwarded through
the tunnel via the HA to a sender (double triangular routing)
 The standard is backwards compatible
• the extensions can be implemented easily and cooperate with
current implementations without these extensions
• Agent Advertisements can carry requests for reverse tunneling

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Mobile IP in detail

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[modified from Ericsson Tech. Rep. 11/0362-FCB, Dec
Route Optimizations
 Enable direct notification of the
corresponding host
 Direct tunneling from the corresponding
host to the mobile host
 Binding cache maintained at corresponding
host

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Route optimizations (contd.)
 4 types of messages
 Binding update
 Binding request
 Binding warning
 Binding acknowledge

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Binding Update
 When a home agent receives a packet to be
tunneled to a mobile host, it sends a binding
update message to the corresponding host
 When a home agent receives a binding request
message, it replies with a binding update message
 Also used in the the smooth-handoffs optimization

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Binding Update (Contd.)
 Corresponding host caches binding and uses it for
tunneling subsequent packets
 Lifetime of binding?
 Corresponding host that perceives a near-expiry
can choose to ask for a binding confirmation using
the binding request message
 Home agent can choose to ask for an
acknowledgement to which a corresponding host
has to reply with a binding ack message

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Binding warning
 When a foreign agent receives a tunneled
message, but sees no visitor entry for the mobile
host, it generates a binding warning message to
the appropriate home agent
 When a home agent receives a warning, it issues an
update message to the corresponding host
 What if the foreign agent does not have the home
agent address (why?) ?

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Binding Update and Warning

Home Agent

BU BW
BR
BA
Corresponding Host Foreign Agent
BW

Mobile Host

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Mobile IP and IPv6
 Mobile IP was developed for IPv4, but IPv6 simplifies the protocols
 security is integrated and not an add-on, authentication of registration
is included
 COA can be assigned via auto-configuration (DHCPv6 is one candidate),
every node has address autoconfiguration
 no need for a separate FA, all routers perform router advertisement
which can be used instead of the special agent advertisement;
addresses are always co-located
 MN can signal a sender directly the COA, sending via HA not needed in
this case (automatic path optimization)
 „soft“ hand-over, i.e. without packet loss, between two subnets is
supported
• MN sends the new COA to its old router
• the old router encapsulates all incoming packets for the MN and forwards
them to the new COA
• authentication is always granted

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Problems with mobile IP
 Security
 authentication with FA problematic, for the FA typically belongs to
another organization
 no protocol for key management and key distribution has been
standardized in the Internet
 patent and export restrictions
 Firewalls
 typically mobile IP cannot be used together with firewalls, special set-
ups are needed (such as reverse tunneling)
 QoS
 many new reservations in case of RSVP
 tunneling makes it hard to give a flow of packets a special treatment
needed for the QoS
 Security, firewalls, QoS etc. are topics of current research and
discussions!

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Security in Mobile IP
 Security requirements (Security Architecture for the Internet
Protocol, RFC 1825)
 Integrity
any changes to data between sender and receiver can be detected by
the receiver
 Authentication
sender address is really the address of the sender and all data
received is really data sent by this sender
 Confidentiality
only sender and receiver can read the data
 Non-Repudiation
sender cannot deny sending of data
 Traffic Analysis
creation of traffic and user profiles should not be possible
 Replay Protection
receivers can detect replay of messages

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IP Micro-mobility support
 Micro-mobility support:
 Efficient local handover inside a foreign domain
without involving a home agent
 Reduces control traffic on backbone
 Especially needed in case of route optimization

 Example approaches:
 Cellular IP
 HAWAII
 Hierarchical Mobile IP (HMIP)

 Important criteria:
Security Efficiency, Scalability, Transparency, Manageability

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 Cellular IP
 Operation:
 „CIP Nodes“ maintain routing Internet
entries (soft state) for MNs
 Multiple entries possible Mobile IP
 Routing entries updated based
on packets sent by MN CIP Gateway
data/control
 CIP Gateway:
packets
 Mobile IP tunnel endpoint from MN 1
 Initial registration processing
 Security provisions:
 all CIP Nodes share BS BS BS
packets from
„network key“ MN2 to MN 1
 MN key: MD5(net key, IP addr)
MN1 MN2
 MN gets key upon registration

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Cellular IP: Security
 Advantages:
 Initial registration involves authentication of MNs
and is processed centrally by CIP Gateway
 All control messages by MNs are authenticated
 Replay-protection (using timestamps)

 Potential problems:
 MNs can directly influence routing entries
 Network key known to many entities
(increases risk of compromise)
 No re-keying mechanisms for network key
 No choice of algorithm (always MD5, prefix+suffix mode)
 Proprietary mechanisms (not, e.g., IPSec AH)

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Cellular IP: Other issues
 Advantages:
 Simple and elegant architecture
 Mostly self-configuring (little management needed)
 Integration with firewalls / private address support
possible
 Potential problems:
 Not transparent to MNs (additional control messages)
 Public-key encryption of MN keys may be a problem
for resource-constrained MNs
 Multiple-path forwarding may cause inefficient use of
available bandwidth

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HAWAII
 Operation:
 MN obtains co-located COA 1
and registers with HA Internet
2
 Handover: MN keeps COA, HA
new BS answers Reg. Request
and updates routers Backbone
3
 MN views BS as foreign agent Router
4
Crossover
 Security provisions: Router
 MN-FA authentication mandatory 2
 Challenge/Response Extensions 4 Mobile IP
mandatory
BS BS BS DHCP
Server
Mobile IP
3
MN MN DHCP
1

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 HAWAII: Security
 Advantages:
 Mutual authentication and C/R extensions mandatory
 Only infrastructure components can influence routing entries

 Potential problems:
 Co-located COA raises DHCP security issues
(DHCP has no strong authentication)
 Decentralized security-critical functionality
(Mobile IP registration processing during handover)
in base stations
 Authentication of HAWAII protocol messages unspecified
(potential attackers: stationary nodes in foreign network)
 MN authentication requires PKI or AAA infrastructure

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HAWAII: Other issues
 Advantages:
 Mostly transparent to MNs
(MN sends/receives standard Mobile IP messages)
 Explicit support for dynamically assigned home addresses

 Potential problems:
 Mixture of co-located COA and FA concepts may not be
supported by some MN implementations
 No private address support possible
because of co-located COA

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 Hierarchical Mobile IPv6
(HMIPv6)
 Operation:
 Network contains mobility anchor point Internet
HA
(MAP)
• mapping of regional COA (RCOA) to link COA
(LCOA)
RCOA
 Upon handover, MN informs MAP
MAP only
• gets new LCOA, keeps RCOA
 HA is only contacted if MAP binding AR AR
changes update
LCOAnew LCOAold
 Security provisions:
 no HMIP-specific MN MN
security provisions
 binding updates should be
authenticated

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 Hierarchical MIP

HMIPv4 HMIPv6
MN FA1 RFA1 GFA HA/CN MN MA HA/CN
-- CoA and HA Discovery --

1
1. CoA Discovery -- CoA and HA Discovery --
2 1 1. CoA Discovery
2. HA Discovery Request
3 2
3. HA Discovery Reply 2. HA Discovery Request
-- Registration Procedure --
3
4a. Registration Request 3. HA Discovery Reply
4a 4b. Registration Request w/extension
4b
4c 4c. Registration Request w/extension
4d -- Registration Procedure --
4d. Registration Request -- Sequential Method --
5a. Registration Reply 4 4. MA Registration BU
5b 5a 5b. Registration Reply w/extension
5d 5c 5c. Registration Reply w/extension 5 5. MA Reg. BU Acknowledgement
5d. Registration Reply

-- MN is Registered with HA --
-- MN is Registered with MA --
6
-- MN moves from FA1 to FA2 -- 6. HA Registration BU
FA2 RFA2 COS
6. Reg Reg w/ Previous FA Notification 7. HA Reg. BU Acknowledgement
6 7
7 7. Reg. Reg w/ Hierarchical FA ext.
8 -- MN is Registered with HA --
9
8. Reg. Reg w/ Hierarchical FA ext.
10 9. BU to previous FA
11 -- Encapsulated Method --
10a 10. BU to Crossover Router
11a 4. MA/HA Registration BU
10a. BU Ack 4
11. BU to Crossover Router 5 5. HA Registration BU
12 11a. BU ack
6 6. HA Reg. BU Acknowledgement
12. Reply
7. HA Reg. BU Acknowledgement
7
-- MN is Registered with HA and MA--

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 Hierarchical Mobile IP: Security
 Advantages:
 Local COAs can be hidden,
which provides some location privacy
 Direct routing between CNs sharing the same link is possible
(but might be dangerous)

 Potential problems:
 Decentralized security-critical functionality
(handover processing) in mobility anchor points
 MNs can (must!) directly influence routing entries via binding
updates (authentication necessary)

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 Hierarchical Mobile IP: Other
issues
 Advantages:
 Handover requires minimum number
of overall changes to routing tables
 Integration with firewalls / private address support possible
 Potential problems:
 Not transparent to MNs
 Handover efficiency in wireless mobile scenarios:
• Complex MN operations
• All routing reconfiguration messages sent over wireless link

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Smooth Hand-offs
 When a mobile host moves from one
foreign agent to another …
 Packets in flight to the old FA are lost and
are expected to be recovered through
higher layer protocols (e.g. TCP)
 How can these packets be saved?

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Smooth Hand-offs
 Make previous FA forward packets to the new FA
 Send binding updates to the old FA through the
new FA
 Such forwarding will be done for a pre-specified
amount of time (registration lifetime)
 Update can also help old FA free any reserved
resources immediately
 Why better?

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Recap
 Host mobility and Internet addresses
 Post-office analogy
 Home agent, foreign agent, care-of address, home
address
 Registration and Tunneling
 Mobile IP problems
 Mobile IP Optimizations
 Other options

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