UNIT-III

MOBILE IP AND WIRELESS

ACCESS PROTOCOL
MOBILE IP
• The term mobile in this context implies that a user is
connected to one or more applications across the Internet,
that the user's point of attachment changes dynamically,
and that all connections are automatically maintained
despite the change.
Operation of Mobile IP
• Routers make use of the IP address in an IP datagram to
perform routing.
• In particular, the network portion of an IP address is used
by routers to move a datagram from the source computer
to the network to which the target computer is attached.
• Then the final router on the path, which is attached to the
same network as the target computer, uses the host
portion of the IP address to deliver the IP datagram to the
destination.
• A mobile node is assigned to a particular network, known
as its home network. Its IP address on that network,
known as its home address, is static.
• When the mobile node moves its attachment point to
another network, that network is considered a foreign
network for this host.
• Once the mobile node is reattached, it makes its presence
known by registering with a network node, typically a
router, on the foreign network known as a foreign agent.
• The mobile node then communicates with a similar agent
on the user's home network, known as a home agent,
giving the home agent the care-of address of the mobile
node.
Mobile IP Scenario
• To support the operations Mobile IP includes three basic
capabilities:
• Discovery: A mobile node uses a discovery procedure to
identify prospective home agents and foreign agents.
• Registration: A mobile node uses an authenticated
registration procedure to inform its home agent of its care-
of address.
• Tunneling: Tunneling is used to forward IP datagrams
from a home address to a care-of address.
Discovery
• The discovery process in Mobile IP is very similar to the router
advertisement process defined in ICMP (Internet Control Message
Protocol). Accordingly, agent discovery makes use of ICMP router
advertisement messages, with one or more extensions specific to Mobile
IP.

Protocol Support for Mobile IP

• The router advertisement portion of the message includes the IP
address of the router.
• The advertisement extension includes additional information
about the router's role as an agent.
• A mobile node listens for these agent advertisement messages.

Mobile IP Agent Advertisement Message

• The agent advertisement extension follows the ICMP router
advertisement fields and consists of the following fields.
• • Type: 16, indicates that this is an agent advertisement.
• • Length: Number of bytes in the extension, excluding the Type
and Length fields.
• • Sequence Number: The count of agent advertisement
messages sent since the agent was initialized.
• • Lifetime: The longest lifetime, in seconds, that this agent is
willing to accept a registration request from a mobile node.
• • R: Registration with this foreign agent is required. Even those
mobile nodes that have already acquired a care-of address from
this foreign agent must re-register.
• B: Busy. The foreign agent will not accept registrations from
additional mobile nodes.
• • H: This agent offers services as a home agent on this network.
• • F: This agent offers services as a foreign agent on this network.
 • • M: This agent can receive tunneled IP datagrams that use
minimal encapsulation
• • G: This agent can receive tunneled IP datagrams that use GRE
encapsulation.
• • r: reserved.
• • T: Foreign agent supports reverse tunneling.
• • Care-Of Address: The care-of address or addresses supported
by this agent on this network.
Registration
• The registration process involves four steps:
• 1. The mobile node requests the forwarding service by sending a
registration request to the foreign agent.
• 2. The foreign agent relays this request to the mobile node's
home agent.
• 3. The home agent either accepts or denies the request and
sends a registration reply to the foreign agent.
• 4. The foreign agent relays this reply to the mobile node.
Mobile IP Registration Messages
Tunneling
•Once a mobile node is registered with a home agent, the
home agent must be able to intercept IP datagrams sent to
the mobile node's home address so that these datagrams can
be forwarded via tunneling.
•The standard does not mandate a specific technique for this
purpose but references ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) as
a possible mechanism.
 WIRELESS APPLICATION PROTOCOL
• The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a universal, open
standard developed by the WAP Forum to provide mobile users
of wireless phones and other wireless terminals .
• WAP is designed to work with all wireless network technologies
(e.g., GSM, CDMA, and TDMA).

• The WAP specification includes

• • A programming model based on the WWW Programming
model
• A markup language, the Wireless Markup Language, adhering to
XML
• A specification of a small browser suitable for a mobile, wireless
terminal
• A lightweight communications protocol stack
• • A framework for wireless telephony applications (WTAs)
WAP Protocol Stack
Wireless Markup Language
• WML was designed to describe content and format for
presenting data on devices with limited bandwidth, limited
screen size, and limited user input capability.
• It is designed to work with telephone keypads, styluses,
and other input devices common to mobile, wireless
communication.
• Text and image support: Formatting and layout commands
are provided for text and limited image capability.
• Support for navigation among cards and decks: WML
includes provisions for event handling, which is used for
navigation or executing scripts.
WML Script
• WML Script is a scripting language with similarities to
JavaScript.
• It is designed for defining script-type programs in a user
device with limited processing power and memory.
WML Tags
WML Script Statements
Wireless Session Protocol
• WSP provides applications with an interface for two
session services.
• The connection oriented session service operates above
the reliable transport protocol WTP, and the
connectionless session service operates above the
unreliable transport protocol WDP.
• WSP Service In general, a connection-mode WSP provides
the following services:
• Establish a reliable session from client to server and
release that session in an orderly manner.
• Agree on a common level of protocol functionality using
capability negotiation.
• Exchange content between client and server using compact
encoding.
• Suspend and resume a session.
• Push content from server to client.
• Session establishment

• Server address: The peer with which the session is to be

established.
• Client address: The originator of the session.
• Client headers: Contain attribute information that can be
used for application level parameters to be communicated
to the peer.
Wireless Transaction Protocol
• WTP manages transactions by conveying requests and
responses between a user agent (such as a WAP browser)
and an application server for such activities as browsing
and e-transactions.
• WTP includes the following features:
• Three classes of transaction service.
• Optional user-to-user reliability: WTP user triggers the
confirmation of each received message.
• Optional out-of-band data on acknowledgments.
• Asynchronous transactions.
WTP Transaction Classes
•WTP provides three transaction classes that may be invoked
by WSP or another higher layer protocol:
•Class 0: Unreliable invoke message with no result message
•Class 1: Reliable invoke message with no result message
•Class 2: Unreliable invoke message with one reliable result
message
Wireless Datagram Protocol
• WDP is used to adapt a higher-layer WAP protocol to the
communication mechanism (called the bearer) used
between the mobile node and the WAP gateway.
• service with the following parameters:
• • Source address: Address of the device making a request
to the WDP layer
• • Source port: Application address associated with the
source address
• • Destination address: Destination address for the data
submitted to WDP
• • Destination port: Application address associated with
the destination address
• • User data: User data from the next higher layer,
submitted to WDP for transmission to the destination port
• The following fields are necessary in a WDP PDU:
• • Header length (1 byte): Length of header.
• • Port numbers identifier (1 byte)
• • Port numbers length (1 byte)
• • Destination port (2 bytes)
• • Source port (2 bytes)
• SAR identifier (1 byte)
• SAR length (1 byte)
• Datagram reference number (1 bytes)
• Number of segments (1 byte)
• Segment count
• User data (1 to n bytes)
• LAN stands for “Local Area Network“. It is a collection of devices
connected into the network in a certain location. A LAN can be wireless,
wired, or a combination of the two. If wired, then LAN uses Ethernet
cables to connect devices together.
• WLAN stands for “Wireless Local Area Network“. As we mentioned above,
the wireless LAN is a network allowing devices to connect and
communicate wirelessly. Devices on a WLAN communicate via Wi-Fi.
• Wi-Fi is a wireless networking technology that allows devices to
communicate over a wireless signal. Wi-Fi means “Wireless Fidelity” and
this term is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance used to brand products that
belong to a category of WLAN devices. It is based on the IEEE 802.11
standards, and the letters a, b, n, or ac. The versions are all compatible
with each other, but connecting to an earlier version means your device
will be capped at a slower speed.
• 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.
• Basic Terminologies Related to Mobile IP
• A Mobile Node (MN): It is the hand-held communication device that the user carries e.g. Cell phone.
• A Home Network: It is a network to which the mobile node originally belongs as per its assigned IP address (home address).
• Home Agent (HA): It is a router in-home network to which the mobile node was originally connected
• Home Address: It is the permanent IP address assigned to the mobile node (within its home network).
• Foreign Network: It is the current network to which the mobile node is visiting (away from its home network).
• A Foreign Agent (FA): It is a router in a foreign network to which the mobile node is currently connected. The packets from the home agent are sent to the foreign agent which delivers them to the mobile node.
• The Correspondent Node (CN): It is a device on the internet communicating to the mobile node.
• Care-of Address (COA): It is the temporary address used by a mobile node while it is moving away from its home network.
• Foreign Agent COA: The COA could be located at the FA, i.e., the COA is an IP address of the FA. The FA is the tunnel end-point and forwards packets to the MN. Many MN using the FA can share this COA as a common COA.
• Co-Located COA: The COA is co-located if the MN temporarily acquires an additional IP address that acts as a COA. This address is now topologically correct, and the tunnel endpoint is at the MN. Co-located addresses can be acquired using
services such as DHCP.
• Mobile IP Topology
• How Does Mobile IP Work?
• The correspondent node sends the data to the mobile node. Data packets contain the correspondent node’s address (Source) and home address (Destination). Packets reach the home agent. But now mobile node is not in the home
network, it has moved into the foreign network. The foreign agent sends the care-of-address to the home agent to which all the packets should be sent. Now, a tunnel will be established between the home agent and the foreign agent by
the process of tunneling.
• Tunneling 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.
• Now, 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.
• Key Mechanisms in Mobile IP
• Agent Discovery: Agents advertise their presence by periodically broadcasting their agent advertisement messages. The mobile node receiving the agent advertisement messages observes whether the message is from its own home agent
and determines whether it is in the home network or foreign network.
• Agent Registration: Mobile node after discovering the foreign agent sends a Registration Request (RREQ) to the foreign agent. The foreign agent, in turn, sends the registration request to the home agent with the care-of-address. The home
agent sends a Registration Reply (RREP) to the foreign agent. Then it forwards the registration reply to the mobile node and completes the process of registration.
• Tunneling: 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.
• Route Optimization in Mobile IP
• The route optimization adds a conceptual data structure, the binding cache, to the correspondent node. The binding cache contains bindings for the mobile node’s home address and its current care-of-address. Every time the home agent
receives an IP datagram that is destined to a mobile node currently away from the home network, it sends a binding update to the correspondent node to update the information in the correspondent node’s binding cache. After this, the
correspondent node can directly tunnel packets to the mobile node. Mobile IP is provided by the network providers.
• Conclusion
• Mobile Internet Protocol (Mobile IP) makes it possible for devices to stay connected to the internet while moving between different networks. This technology ensures that your device can switch from Wi-Fi to cellular data without losing its
connection or needing a new IP address. Mobile IP is essential for the seamless and reliable use of mobile devices, allowing you to stay connected wherever you go.