MOBILITY AT A
GLANCE
Certified Network Engineer (CNE6) for IPv6 – Gold
Goals
The goals of IPv6 mobility are:
• Not constrained by location
• Always on IP connectivity
• Transport independent
• Robust roaming connections
• Application mobility
• Application continuity
• Mobile device can be a server
What’s Mobility?
Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) is defined in:
• RFC 3775: Mobility Support in IPv6
• RFC 3776: Using IPsec to Protect Mobile IPv6 Signaling
between Mobile Nodes and Home Agents
The same basic components exist in MIPv6 as in
MIPv4, except there are no foreign agents in
MIPv6.
Components of MIPv6
Home link - Home subnet prefix, from which the mobile node
obtains its home address.
* The home agent resides on the home link.
Home address - An address assigned to the mobile node when
it is attached to the home link and through which the mobile
node is always reachable, regardless of its location on an IPv6
network.
Home agent - A router on the home link that maintains
registrations of mobile nodes that are away from home and the
different addresses that they are currently using.
* The home agent can also be a node on the home link that
does not perform any forwarding when the mobile node is at
home.
Components of MIPv6
Mobile node - An IPv6 node that can change links, and
therefore addresses, and maintain reachability using its home
address.
Foreign link - A link that is not the mobile node's home link.
Care-of address - An address used by a mobile node while it is
attached to a foreign link.
For stateless address configuration, the care-of address is a
combination of the foreign subnet prefix and an interface ID
determined by the mobile node.
A mobile node can be assigned multiple care-of addresses; however,
only one care-of address is registered as the primary care-of address
with the mobile node's home agent.
The association of a home address with a care-of address for a
mobile node is known as a binding.
Components of MIPv6
Correspondent node -
An IPv6 node that
communicates with a
mobile node.
A correspondent node
does not have to be
Mobile IPv6-capable.
If the correspondent
node is Mobile IPv6-
capable, it can also be a
mobile node that is away
from home.
How it Works
While a mobile node is at home, packets
addressed to its home address are routed to the
mobile node’s home link, using conventional
Internet routing mechanisms.
How it Works
When an MN moves to a foreign link, the MN will
receive a care-of-address (CoA) using stateless or
stateful auto-configuration. The MN will then
send a binding update to the HA with the MN’s
new CoA for use while roaming.
How CN and MN communicate
There are two ways to handle packet forwarding
between correspondent nodes (CNs) and MNs:
Route optimization mode
Bidirectional tunneling mode
Route Optimization Mode
Uses type 2 routing header
Requires MIPv6 functionality on the CN
Initial packets are routed from the CN to the MN via
the HA
MN replies to CN directly, and CN does a binding
cache update for MN's new CoA
Subsequent packets between CN and MN are routed
directly with no interaction needed on the HA
Bidirectional Tunneling Mode
Does not require MIPv6 functionality on the CN.
All traffic between the CN and MN is routed via the
HA.
Useful when requiring MNs to have traffic inspected
at home network by IDS, virus scanning, and
firewalls.
Allows for mobility without requiring MIPv6 code
on all CNs that the MN may need to communicate
with.
Implementations
Open Source project called “Dynamics Mobile IP” for Linux. It
appears to have reached a pre-release version (0.81) in October
2001, and gone quiet. It appears to support only Mobile IPv4.
Project called “Transparent Mobile IP” reached version 0.5a in
2003, then went quiet. It also appears to be Mobile IPv4 only.
Sun implemented parts of Mobile IPv4, including Home Agent
and Foreign Agent functionality (no Mobile Node or
Correspondent Node functionality), for the Solaris 10 operating
system. It was removed after Solaris 10 8/07.
Implementations
Mobile IPv6 for Linux (kernel 2.4.22) was done at Helsinki
University of Technology’s MIPL project. It includes support for
Mobile Node and Home Agent functionality, and involves
applying a patch to the Linux Kernel.
Microsoft implemented the Correspondent Node functionality in
Windows Vista and Windows 7, but not the Mobile Node
functionality.
FreeBSD via Kame project before they shut down, and the
download is dated [Link] on the FreeBSD 4.2 operating
system. There is a discussion of how to deploy and configure
Mobile IPv6 in the “Mobile IPv6”.
Conclusion to IPv6
Notwidely deployed, and incompletely
implemented, that’s all we are going to cover
about it for now.
Thank You
