Mobile IP

Mobile IP
 Layer Model
– service location
Application layer
– new applications, multimedia
– adaptive applications
Transport layer – congestion and flow control
– quality of service
– addressing, routing,
Network layer device location
– hand-over
– authentication
Data link layer – media access
– multiplexing
– media access control
Physical layer – encryption
– modulation
– interference
– attenuation
– frequency
 Introduction

 A rapid growth in the number of Portable computers and Number

of nodes connected to Internet.
 desire to have continuous network connectivity to the Internet
irrespective of physical connection.
 IP requires the location of a node connected to the Internet to be
uniquely identified by an assigned IP address.
 When a mobile node moves to another physical location, it has to
change its IP address.
 However, higher level protocols require an IP address of a node to
be fixed----for identifying the connections.

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 Introduction …

 IP was not designed considering mobility.

 Dynamic nature of mobile nodes connectivity require more flexible
support than provided by conventional TCP/IP
`
 As a result, Mobile Internet Protocol [ Mobile IP ]
Proposed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
It enables mobile computers to stay connected to the Internet
regardless of their location and without changing their IP
address.

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 Motivation for Mobile IP

 any access to the Internet has restriction of point of

attachment.
 When a mobile node moves to different place,
 we have to reconfigure it with a new IP address
 all active connections are interrupted
 packets which are routed to it will arrive at its original
network

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 Motivation for Mobile IP…

To support mobile communication two possible options [apart

from Mobile IP]
i. the node has to change its IP address whenever it changes
its point of attachment
ii. host-specific routes have to propagate throughout
Internet routing tables
A better solution
 Mobile IP
 It is an open standard that allows users to keep the same IP
address, stay connected, and maintain ongoing applications
while roaming across different networks.
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 Terminologies in Mobile IP

Mobile Node (MN)

 A node that changes its point of attachment
Home Agent (HA)
 A router on a mobile nodes’ network, that delivers packets
to mobile nodes and maintains current location information
Foreign Agent (FA)
 A router on a mobile node’s visited network which
cooperates with the home agent to complete the delivery of
packet to the mobile node while it is away from home.
Care-of address
 An address the mobile node uses for communication when
it is away from its original network.

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 Terminologies in Mobile IP…

Correspondent Node (CN)

 A node with which a mobile node is communicating.
Foreign Network
 Any network other than the mobile node’s home network.
Home Address
 An IP address assigned for an extended period of time to a
mobile node.
Home Network
 A network having a network prefix matching that of a mobile
node’s home address.
Mobility Agent ( home agent & foreign agent)
 A node that offers support services to mobile nodes.
Visited Network
A network other than a mobile node’s home network to 6
which the mobile node is currently connected.
 Illustration

Home Agent
Mobile Node

router

home network Foreign Agent

Internet

foreign
network
router
Correspondent Node (current physical network
for the MN)

end-system router 7
 Operations in Mobile IP
• There are three operations

 Agent Discovery

 Registration

 Tunneling

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 Agent Discovery

 Mobility agents advertise their presence by periodically

broadcasting Agent Advertisement Messages(list Care-of-addresses, flag
 MN can trigger the advertisement by sending Agent Solicitation
Message
 If the MN discovers that it is on foreign network, it obtains a care-
of address
 Two methods
1. Foreign agent care-of address( shared by MN,by foreign agent)
2.Collocated care-of address( Foreign agents busy; by DHCP; one MN
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 Registration

• The registration process in Mobile IP with care-of addresses

Home Address Home Agent Media Lifetime
Address Address (in s)
131.193.44.14 131.193.44.7 00-60-08-95-66-E1 150
131.193.33.19 131.193.33.1 00-60-08-68-A2-56 200

Home Care-of Address Lifetime

Address (in s)
131.193.44.14 128.172.23.78 150
131.193.33.19 119.123.56.78 200
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 Registration . . .

 If the MN obtained a collocated care-of address, the whole

registration process is done directly between the MN and the
home agent.

Re-registration

 If the lifetime is about to expire it has to reregisters before its

registration lifetime expires.

Deregistration

 When the mobile node returns to its home network it has

to deregister from the home agent. (registration request life time= 13
0) 11
Tunneling
• Data packets addressed to the Mobile Node are routed to its
home network, where the Home Agent now intercepts and
tunnels them to the care-of address toward the Mobile
Node.
• Tunneling has two primary functions:
• Encapsulation of the data packet to reach the tunnel
endpoint, and
• Decapsulation when the packet is delivered at that
endpoint.
• The default tunnel mode is IP Encapsulation within IP
Encapsulation.
 Tunneling . . .

Tunneling process in Mobile IP.

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 Problems with basic Mobile IP

 Problems with the basic Mobile IP

 Security
 Ingress Filtering
 Triangular Routing
 Single Home Agent Model

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 Security

 Mobile nodes are connected to Internet

via wireless
 vulnerable to security attack

 Example
 A node may pretend to be a FA and send a registration
request to a HA so as to divert Packet traffic to itself.

Solution :
Authentication

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 Ingress Filtering

 router on some networks discards packets

if Source IP dose not belong to the network
• used to stop spoofing.

• packets sent from a MN include its home address as the

source IP address

 Solution :
Reverse Tunneling
 Create a reverse path through the HA for the entire
MN to CN communications.

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 Triangular Routing

Solution:
Route Optimization
 Let the CN know the Care-of address of MN
 Direct routing

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 Single Home Agent

 Simple and easy to configure

• if the home agent breaks down

Solution :
Multiple home agent
 if one fail the other could take over

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 Mobile IPv6

 Solves the problem of the lack of available address space

 has come up with the following improvements
• Route Optimization is built as a part of Mobile IPv6
• Foreign Agents are not needed(enhanced capability)
• Solves Ingress filtering problem in basic Mobile IP
• by putting the care-of address as the source address

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Mobile IPv6…

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 Summary

 Mobile IP allows MN to roam transparently from place to

place within the Internet,
 Operations
 Agent Discovery, Registration, tunneling
 Problems with basic Mobile IP:
 Security , Ingress filtering , Triangular routing
 Mobility support in IPv6 solves many of the problems of
basic Mobile IP.

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 Quiz 5%
1. Why mobile IP and what is mobile IP ?2 point
2. What is the difference between encapsulation and De capsulation ? 2 point
3. Write Problems with the basic Mobile IP? 1 point

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 Layer Model
– service location
Application layer
– new applications, multimedia
– adaptive applications
Transport layer – congestion and flow control
– quality of service
– addressing, routing,
Network layer device location
– hand-over
– authentication
Data link layer – media access
– multiplexing
– media access control
Physical layer – encryption
– modulation
– interference
– attenuation
– frequency
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 Transport Control Protocol (TCP)

 A connection-based protocol that provides a reliable flow

of data between two computers (source and destination)
 Two applications establish a connection (path) via TCP and
exchange data (back and forth) over that connection
• Setup delay and determine the connection path
 TCP guarantees that data sent from one end of the
connection gets to the other end and in the same order it
was sent.
 Otherwise, an error is reported (sender retransmits )

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 Transport Layer
• E.g. HTTP (used by web services)
typically uses TCP Client Server
TCP SYN
– Reliable transport between client and
server required TCP SYN/ACK Connection
• TCP setup
– Steam oriented, not transaction TCP ACK
oriented HTTP request
– Network friendly: time-out Data
 congestion HTTP response transmission
 slow down transmission
• Well known – TCP guesses quite >15 s
no data
often wrong in wireless and mobile
GPRS: 500ms! Connection
networks
release
– Packet loss due to transmission errors
– Packet loss due to change of network
• Result
– Severe performance degradation
 Wired Vs. Wireless Data Transmission
• Data transmission in wired network
– Propagate along a reliable medium (optic fiber)
– Data errors in transmission is low (attenuation of signal is not a major
problem)
– Buffering is used for solving the congestion/jitter problem
• Data transmission in wireless network
– Propagate in all directions through the air
– Long term and short term fading problems
– Data may be difficult to be identified (corrupted or mis-interpreted) due
to noises (interferences) and attenuation
– Error rate could be very high and location-dependent
– Disconnection is frequent
– Change of connection point due to mobility of receiver/senders (handoff)
– Jitter mainly due to retransmissions as a result of heavy noises.

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 Motivation
• Transport protocols typically designed for
– Fixed end-systems or Fixed, wired networks
• Issues
– Performance
– Congestion control
– Efficient retransmissions
• TCP congestion control
– packet loss in fixed networks typically due to overload situations.
– router have to discard packets as soon as the buffers are full
– TCP recognizes congestion only indirect via missing
acknowledgements,
– retransmissions unwise->they would only contribute to the congestion
and make it even worse
– slow-start algorithm as reaction 29
 Motivation…
• TCP slow-start algorithm
– sender calculates a congestion window for a receiver
– start with a congestion window size equal to one segment
– exponential increase of the congestion window up to the congestion
threshold, then linear increase…..
– missing acknowledgement causes the reduction of the congestion threshold to
one half of the current congestion window
– congestion window starts again with one segment
• TCP fast retransmit/fast recovery
– TCP sends an acknowledgement only after receiving a packet
– if a sender receives several acknowledgements for the same packet, this is due
to a gap in received packets at the receiver
– however, the receiver got all packets up to the gap and is actually receiving
packets
– therefore, packet loss is not due to congestion, continue with current
congestion window (so fast retransmit not slow start).
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Influences of mobility on TCP-mechanisms

• TCP assumes congestion if packets are dropped

– typically wrong in wireless networks, here we often have
packet loss due to transmission errors.
– furthermore, mobility itself can cause packet loss, if e.g. a
mobile node roams from one access point (e.g. foreign agent
in Mobile IP) to another while there are still packets in transit
to the wrong access point and forwarding is not possible.
• The performance of an unchanged TCP degrades
severely.
– however, TCP cannot be changed fundamentally due to the
large base of installation in the fixed network, TCP for mobility
has to remain compatible
– the basic TCP mechanisms keep the whole Internet together 31
 Early approach: Indirect TCP …
• Indirect TCP or I-TCP (segments the connection)
– no changes to the TCP protocol for hosts connected to the wired
Internet, millions of computers use (variants of) this protocol
– optimized TCP protocol for mobile hosts
– splitting of the TCP connection at, e.g., the foreign agent into 2
TCP connections, no real end-to-end connection any longer
– hosts in the fixed part of the net do not notice the characteristics
of the wireless part
mobile host
access point
(foreign agent) „wired“ Internet

„wireless“ TCP standard TCP

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 I-TCP socket and state migration

access point1

socket migration
and state transfer Internet

access point2
mobile host

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 Indirect TCP …
• Advantages
– no changes in the fixed network necessary, no changes for the hosts (TCP
protocol) necessary, all current optimizations to TCP still work
– transmission errors on the wireless link do not propagate into the fixed
network
– simple to control, optimized TCP is used only for one hop between, e.g., a
foreign agent and mobile host
– therefore, a very fast retransmission of packets is possible, the short delay
on the mobile hop is known
• Disadvantages
– loss of end-to-end semantics, an acknowledgement to a sender does now
not any longer mean that a receiver really got a packet, foreign agents
might crash
– higher latency possible due to buffering of data within the foreign agent
and forwarding to a new foreign agent(Handover)

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 Early approach: Snooping TCP
• “Transparent” extension of TCP within the foreign agent
– buffering of packets sent to the mobile host
– lost packets on the wireless link (both directions!) will be
retransmitted immediately by the mobile host or foreign agent,
respectively (so called “local” retransmission)
– the foreign agent therefore “snoops” the packet flow and
recognizes acknowledgements in both directions, it also filters ACKs
– changes of TCP only within the foreign agent
local retransmission correspondent
foreign host
agent
„wired“ Internet

snooping of ACKs buffering of data

mobile
host
end-to-end TCP connection
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 Snooping TCP
• Data transfer to the mobile host
– FA buffers data until it receives ACK of the MH, FA detects packet loss via
duplicated ACKs or time-out
– fast retransmission possible, transparent for the fixed network
• Data transfer from the mobile host
– FA detects packet loss on the wireless link via sequence numbers, FA answers
directly with a NACK to the MH
– MH can now retransmit data with only a very short delay
• Problems
– snooping TCP does not isolate the wireless link as good as I-TCP
– snooping might be useless depending on encryption schemes.

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 Early approach: Mobile TCP
• Special handling of lengthy and/or frequent disconnections
• M-TCP splits as I-TCP does
– unmodified TCP (fixed network to supervisory host (SH))
– optimized TCP (SH to MH)
• Supervisory host
– no caching, no retransmission
– monitors all packets, if disconnection detected (no ACKs for some time )
• set sender window size to 0
• sender automatically goes into persistent mode
– old or new SH reopen the window
• Advantages
– maintains end-end semantics, supports resume, no buffer forwarding
• Disadvantages
– loss on wireless link propagated into fixed network
– adapted TCP on wireless link (MH modification)
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 Fast retransmit/fast recovery
• Change of foreign agent often results in packet loss
– TCP reacts with slow-start although there is no congestion
• Forced fast retransmit
– as soon as the mobile host has registered with a new foreign agent,
the MH sends duplicated acknowledgements on purpose
– this forces the fast retransmit mode at the communication partners
– additionally, the TCP on the MH is forced to continue sending with the
actual window size and not to go into slow-start after registration.
• Advantage
– simple changes result in significant higher performance
• Disadvantage
– further mix of IP and TCP, no transparent approach

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 Transmission time-out freezing
• Mobile hosts can be disconnected for a longer time
– no packet exchange possible, e.g., in a tunnel, disconnection due to
overloaded cells. Disconnect with higher priority traffic.
– TCP disconnects after time-out completely.
• TCP freezing
– MAC layer is often able to detect interruption in advance
– MAC can inform TCP layer of upcoming loss of connection
– TCP stops sending, but does now not assume a congested link
– MAC layer signals again if reconnected .
• Advantage
– scheme is independent of data
• Disadvantage
– TCP on mobile host has to be changed, mechanism depends on MAC
layer
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 Selective retransmission
• TCP acknowledgements are often cumulative
– ACK n acknowledges correct and in-sequence receipt of packets up to n
– if single packets are missing quite often a whole packet sequence
beginning at the gap has to be retransmitted (go-back-n), thus wasting
bandwidth.
• Selective retransmission as one solution
– allows for acknowledgements of single packets, not only
acknowledgements of in-sequence packet streams without gaps
– sender can now retransmit only the missing packets
• Advantage
– much higher efficiency
• Disadvantage
– more complex software in a receiver, more buffer needed at the
receiver

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 Transaction oriented TCP
• TCP phases
– connection setup, data transmission, connection release
– using 3-way-handshake needs 3 packets for setup and release,
respectively
– thus, even short messages need a minimum of 7 packets!
• Transaction oriented TCP
– T-TCP, describes a TCP version to avoid this overhead
– connection setup, data transfer and connection release can be
combined
– thus, only 2 or 3 packets are needed
• Advantage
– efficiency
• Disadvantage
– requires changed TCP
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 TCP phases

Client Server
TCP SYN

TCP SYN/ACK
Connection
setup
TCP ACK
HTTP request

HTTP response Data

transmission
>15 s
no data
GPRS: 500ms!
Connection
release

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 Comparison of different approaches for a
“mobile” TCP
Approach Mechanism Advantages Disadvantages
Indirect TCP splits TCP connection isolation of wireless loss of TCP semantics,
into two connections link, simple higher latency at
handover
Snooping TCP “snoops” data and transparent for end-to- problematic with
acknowledgements, local end connection, MAC encryption, bad isolation
retransmission integration possible of wireless link
M-TCP splits TCP connection, Maintains end-to-end Bad isolation of wireless
chokes sender via semantics, handles link, processing
window size long term and frequent overhead due to
disconnections bandwidth management
Fast retransmit/ avoids slow-start after simple and efficient mixed layers, not
fast recovery roaming transparent
Transmission/ freezes TCP state at independent of content changes in TCP
time-out freezing disconnect, resumes or encryption, works for required, MAC
after reconnection longer interrupts dependant
Selective retransmit only lost data very efficient slightly more complex
retransmission receiver software, more
buffer needed
Transaction combine connection Efficient for certain changes in TCP
oriented TCP setup/release and data applications required, not transparent
transmission
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 TCP Improvements
• Initial research work
– Indirect TCP, Snoop TCP, M-TCP, T/TCP,
SACK, Transmission/time-out freezing, …
• TCP over 2.5/3G wireless networks
– Fine tuning today’s TCP
– Learn to live with
• Data rates: 64 kbit/s up, 115-384 kbit/s down; asymmetry: 3-6, but also up to
1000 (broadcast systems), periodic allocation/release of channels
• High latency, high jitter, packet loss
– Suggestions
• Large (initial) sending windows, large maximum transfer unit, selective
acknowledgement, explicit congestion notification, time stamp,
– Widespread use
• i-mode running over FOMA
• WAP 2.0 (“TCP with wireless profile”)
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 TCP Improvements
• Performance enhancing proxies Mobile system

– Transport layer wireless

• Local retransmissions and acknowledgements
– Additionally on the application layer PEP

• Content filtering, compression,picture downscaling

• E.g., Internet/WAP gateways
• Web service gateways Internet

– problem: breaks end-to-end semantics

• Disables use of IP security
• Choose between PEP and security! Comm. partner

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