Mobile IP Operation Principles - Coursework Example

MOBILE IP OPERATION PRINCIPLES Mobile IP Operation Principles Customer Name: Lecturer Name: Date: Introduction Communications is currently the most pervasive trend in the world, where the advances in technology such as progress in radio frequency technology and developments of the infrastructure promoted with increasing intake of computing devices such as mobile phones, laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) has resulted to demand for a seamless anytime, anywhere and any-type of communication. Traveling business persons, corporate executives and organizational employees demand unreserved and uninterrupted access to their office databases, personal files, office mail; video conferencing and other office related communication while traveling between geographically disperse locations. Whereas the Internet Protocol (IP) has advanced the internet, part of a node’s IP address offers information on the node’s physical location on the network since the subnet can be determined, this is however founded on the notion that nodes are stationary. This assumption however does not hold considering the current demands where users dynamically change position while there is need to stay connected to their “home network”, it is therefore a problem for mobile communication to map the bits in the IP address field to a physical location, this is the fundamental objective for Mobile IP, enabling nodes such as laptops to maintain regular communications with all nodes on the internet and its home network while it is moving despite the consequences of its point of attachment and without demanding that users reconfigure their machines. This has led to the development of Mobile IP. Mobile IP (or IP mobility) is a standard communications protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), 1the objective founding the design of Mobile IP is to allow mobile device users maintain a permanent IP address when moving from one network to another, furthermore, Mobile IP protocol permits non location dependent routing of IP datagrams on the Internet, this technology has been gaining immense developments and popularity with enhancements such as Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) and Mobile IPv6 intentioned to enhance and improve mobile communications, by enhancing efficiency and security.2 The development of Mobile IP is based on the principle of home address identification of a mobile node without regard to the node’s present location in the Internet, when the computing device is not in the home network, it is assigned a care-of address which recognizes the node’s home address and the present location in terms of the foreign network, the assigned care of address is then connected to the home agent. This feature enables Mobile IP to provide an efficient, scalable mechanism for roaming within the Internet since a node has the potential of maintaining its home IP address while changing its point-of-attachment to the Internet. The arrangement permits the nodes to roam while preserving transport and higher-layer connections. The need for mobile IP The need for Mobile IP results from change of point of attachment by a node connected to the Internet caused by change of the node’s physical location, which then dictates a change in the nodes IP address, if a node moves to a different subnet in the course of communication, other nodes shall not be in a position to communicate with it since using original IP address, packets shall be send to the nodes original subnet, the packets shall however fail to reach the desired node since earlier IP’s were designed without considering the mobile computer,3 however since IP applications have gained acceptance as the de facto standard for data networking, it is imperative that IP based support for mobile computing devices is offered rather that developing brand new protocols. Furthermore, mobile communications also includes communication between mobile nodes and stationary nodes, therefore there is need to preserve seamless connectivity linking the mobile nodes and the currently present fixed Internet nodes. Common terms associated with Mobile IP The operating principles concerning Mobile IP has been defined by several terms, which includes Mobile Node which is defined as a node running the Mobile IP protocol stack which is assigned a permanent IP address which dictates where the node’s packets should be sent as the node moves between different IP subnets, other nodes specify the permanent home IP address when sending packets to the mobile node, the home IP address remains regardless of the physical location of the mobile node. Home Agent is defined as a router charged with the responsibility of intercepting packets destined for the mobile node, the agent which is located on the home network functions when the mobile node is attached to a foreign network and the agent forwards the packets to the mobile node. Home Network is the subnet which matches to the home address of the mobile node, and is the device’s point of attachment, Foreign Network on the other hand is a network, which a mobile node attaches to which is not mobile node’s home network, a Foreign Agent is a router on the foreign network while correspondent node is an host communicating with the mobile node regardless of its location. Care-of Address is the assigned address used for communication by the mobile node while on a foreign network; this can either be collocated care-of address or a foreign agent care-of address. Tunneling is defined as the process of encapsulating an IP packet contained by another IP packet with the objective of routing the IP packet to a location not the original specified in the destination field. 4 Mobile IP Operational Principles Whereas are components are necessary for Mobile IP, foreign agent, mobile node and the home agent have to be modified so as to support Mobile IP over the Internet. For the mobile node to determine the address potential agent, it broadcasts an agent solicitation message. The advertisements serve as informants to mobile node in determining if it has moved to a new location and the possible foreign network. If the mobile node establishes that it is on a foreign network, it can either obtain a care-of address from the foreign agent or collocated care-of address if it is utilizing another protocol such as Domain Host Control Protocol (DHCP), the foreign agent is accountable for un-marshalling the tunneled packets received from the home agent of the mobile node’s and transmitting the packets to the mobile node. When a node has been assigned a new care-of-address, the node registers the address with its home agent, so that the old care-of-address can be deregistered, however a mobile node can potentially have several care-of-addresses, hence a node can dynamically alternate between several mobile networks. The registration process includes strong authentication which is offered by 16-bit message digest to reduce the occurrences of Denial of Service attacks to the nodes on the network, a random number to avert Replay attacks, and a secret key.5 For the home agent to send data and information to the computing device when the device is located on a foreign network, the home agent uses encapsulation to advance the mobile node’s data and information across the network. For a node communication with a mobile node to send data, it utilizes the permanent home address in the home network; the packets are then encapsulated by the home agent by addition of the mobile node’s care-of address as its destination. On its part, the foreign agent receives the packet a, de-encapsulates it and forwards the packet to the intended mobile node. The mobile node can directly communicate with the corresponding node utilizing its home address as the source IP address through the foreign agent; this creates “triangle routing”. Justification rationale behind Mobile IP The increased demand for mobile wireless Internet solutions has been occasioned by the increased powers and processing capabilities of portable computing devices such as laptops and Personal Digital Assistants, this has allowed permitted consumers to freely roam between wireless connection zones. This uptake of mobile IP has been occasioned by the invention’s merits.6 Uniqueness The uniqueness of mobile IP address permits users to connect to the Internet without a customary dynamic or static IP address by the utilization of a unique mobile IP address. The unique address allows the nodes connect throughout a foreign network to a home IP address, yet at the same time make use of and converse with the network's protocol. The unique IP is significant for routing data packets to the desired node, hence creating a seamless communication environment. Consistent Internet Availability Mobile IP offers consistent Internet availability, due to its reliance on existing communication infrastructure with little or no modifications required for a node to hop from one network to another,7 furthermore the seamless nature of Mobile IP offers consistent access to he internet of node, regardless of its configurations or platform. Portability Active IP creation while commuting ensures that users have uninterrupted internet access while they are not on the home network, in the arrangement, Mobile IP addresses form a tunnel to the host server that permits multi location access point to the Internet limited only by the reception of the signal, The portability in Mobile IP has been realised due to its capacity to permit maintain an IP address while roaming through multiple networks8. Conclusion Mobile IP has been of paramount importance in overcoming the challenges associated with the legendary IP, while utilizing the same infrastructure as the conventional infrastructure, hence introducing seamless mobile communication at affordable costs without restraining mobile users, since the users can effectively communicate without the need to reset their nodes every time they enter a foreign network. Read More