Mobile IP

This is an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard communications protocol

designed to allow mobile devices' (such as laptop, PDA, mobile phone, etc.) users to move
from one network to another while maintaining their permanent IP (Internet Protocol) address.

Mobile IP is a communication protocol (created by extending Internet Protocol, IP) that

allows users to move from one network to another with the same IP address. It ensures that
the communication will continue without the user’s sessions or connections being dropped.
Imagine having a phone number that stays the same no matter where you go. Mobile IP works
similarly, ensuring that even if your device changes its network connection, it can still
communicate without interruption.
This is particularly useful for mobile devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets, which
frequently switch between different networks, such as Wi-Fi and cellular. Mobile IP helps
keep internet connections stable and reliable, making it easier to stay connected while on the
move.

Components of Mobile IP
The mobile IP has following three components as follows:

1. Mobile Node (MN)

The mobile node is an end system or device such as a cell phone, PDA (Personal Digital
assistant), or laptop whose software enables network roaming capabilities.

2. Home Agent (HA)

The home agent provides several services for the mobile node and is located in the home
network. The tunnel for packets towards the mobile node starts at home agent. The home agent
maintains a location registry, i.e. it is informed of the mobile node's location by the current
COA (care of address). Following alternatives for the implementation of an HA exist.
 o Home agent can be implemented on a router that is responsible for the home network.
This is obviously the best position, because without optimization to mobile IP, all
packets for the MN have to go through the router anyway.
o If changing the router's software is not possible, the home agent could also be
implemented on an arbitrary node in the subset. One biggest disadvantage of this
solution is the double crossing of the router by the packet if the MN is in a foreign
network. A packet for the mobile node comes in via the router; the HA sends it through
the tunnel which again crosses the router.

3. Foreign Agent (FA)

The foreign agent can provide several services to the mobile node during its visit to the foreign
network. The FA can have the COA (care or address) acting as a tunnel endpoint and
forwarding packets to the MN. The foreign agent can be the default router for the MN.

Foreign agent can also provide security services because they belong to the foreign network as
opposed to the MN which is only visiting.

In short, FA is a router that may function as the point of attachment for the mobile node when
it roams to a foreign network delivers packets from the home agent to the mobile node.

4. Care of Address (COA)

The Care- of- address defines the current location of the mobile node from an IP point of view.
All IP packets sent to the MN are delivered to the COA, not directly to the IP address of the
MN. Packet delivery toward the mobile node is done using a tunnel. To be more precise, the
COA marks the endpoint of the tunnel, i.e. the address where packets exit the tunnel.

There are two different possibilities for the location of the care of address:

1. Foreign Agent COA: The COA could be located at the foreign agent, i.e. the COA is
an IP address of the foreign agent. The foreign agent is the tunnel endpoint and forwards
packets to the MN. Many MN using the FA can share this COA as common COA.
2. Co-located COA: The COA is co-located if the MN temporarily acquired an additional
IP address which acts as a COA. This address is now topologically correct, and the
tunnel endpoint is at the mobile node. Co-located address can be acquired using services
such as DHCP. One problem associated with this approach is need for additional
addresses if MNs request a COA. This is not always a good idea considering the scarcity
of IPv4 addresses.
 5. Correspondent Node (CN)

At least one partner is needed for communication. The correspondent node represents this
partner for the MN. The correspondent node can be a fixed or mobile node.

6. Home Network

The home network is the subset the MN belongs to with respect to its IP address. No mobile
IP support is needed within this network.

7. Foreign network

The foreign network is the current subset the MN visits and which is not the home network.

Working of Mobile IP
The mobile IP process has following three main phases, which are:

1. Agent Discovery

During the agent discovery phase the HA and FA advertise their services on the network by
using the ICMP router discovery protocol (IROP).

Mobile IP defines two methods: agent advertisement and agent solicitation which are in fact
router discovery methods plus extensions.

Agent advertisement: For the first method, FA and HA advertise their presence periodically
using special agent advertisement messages. These messages advertisement can be seen as a
beacon broadcast into the subnet.

Agent solicitation: If no agent advertisements are present or the inter arrival time is too high,
and an MN has not received a COA, the mobile node must send agent solicitations.

This solicitation forces any agents on the link to immediately send an agent advertisement.
If an MN determines that it is connected to a foreign link, it acquires a care-of address. Two
types of care-of addresses exist:

 FA care-of address

 Collocated care-of address

An FA care-of address is a temporary, loaned IP address that the MN acquires from the FA
agent advertisement. This type of care-of address is the exit point of the tunnel from the HA to
the FA. A collocated care-of address is an address temporarily assigned to an MN interface.
This address is assigned by DHCP or by manual configuration.
 2. Registration

After receiving a care-of address, the MN registers this address with its HA through an
exchange of messages. The HA creates a mobility binding table that maps the home IP address
of the MN to the current care-of address of the MN. An entry in this table is called a mobility
binding . The main purpose of registration is to create, modify, or delete the mobility binding
of an MN at its HA.

The main purpose of the registration is to inform the home agent of the current location for
correct forwarding of packets.

Registration can be done in two ways depending on the location of the COA.

o If the COA is at the FA, the MN sends its registration request containing the COA to the
FA which is forwarding the request to the HA. The HA now set up a mobility
binding containing the mobile node's home IP address and the current COA.

During registration, the MN also asks for service from the FA.

The HA advertises reachability to the home IP address of the MN, thereby attracting packets
that are destined for that address. When a device on the Internet, called a corresponding
node (CN), sends a packet to the MN, the packet is routed to the home network of the MN. The
HA intercepts the packet and tunnels it to the registered care-of address of the MN. At the care-
of address, the FA extracts the packet from the tunnel and delivers it to the MN.
If the MN is sending registration requests through a FA, the FA keeps track of all visiting MNs
by keeping a visitor list. The FA relays the registration request directly to the HA without the
need for tunneling. The FA serves as the router for all packets sent by the visiting MN.

When the MN powers down or determines that it is reconnected to its home link, it deregisters
by sending a deregistration request to the HA. The HA then reclaims the MN.

3. Tunneling

A tunnel is used to establish a virtual pipe for data packets between a tunnel entry and a tunnel
endpoint. Packets which are entering in a tunnel are forwarded inside the tunnel and leave the
tunnel unchanged. Tunneling, i.e., sending a packet through a tunnel is achieved with the help
of encapsulation.

It establishes a virtual pipe for the packets available between a tunnel entry and an endpoint. It
is the process of sending a packet via a tunnel and it is achieved by a mechanism
called encapsulation. It takes place to forward an IP datagram from the home agent to the care-
of-address. Whenever the home agent receives a packet from the correspondent node, it
encapsulates the packet with source address as home address and destination as care-of-
address.

The home agent encapsulates the data packets into new packets in which the source address is
the home address and the destination is the care-of-address and sends it through the tunnel to
the foreign agent. Foreign agent, on another side of the tunnel, receives the data packets,
decapsulates them, and sends them to the mobile node. The mobile node in response to the data
packets received sends a reply in response to the foreign agent. The foreign agent directly sends
the reply to the correspondent node.

Figure: Mobile IP Typical Packet Forwarding