Prof. Younghee Lee 1 1 Computer Networks u Lecture 11: Mobility Prof. Younghee Lee * Some part of this teaching materials are prepared referencing the lecture note made by F. Kurose, Keith W. Ross(U. of Massachusetts)

Prof. Younghee Lee 2 2 What is mobility? u spectrum of mobility, from the network perspective: no mobility high mobility mobile wireless user, using same access point mobile user, passing through multiple access point while maintaining ongoing connections ( like cell phone) mobile user, connecting/ disconnecting from network using DHCP.

Prof. Younghee Lee 3 3 Mobility: Vocabulary home network: permanent “home” of mobile (e.g., /24) Permanent address: address in home network, can always be used to reach mobile e.g., home agent: entity that will perform mobility functions on behalf of mobile, when mobile is remote wide area network correspondent

Prof. Younghee Lee 4 4 Mobility: more vocabulary Care-of-address: address in visited network. (e.g., 79, ) wide area network visited network: network in which mobile currently resides (e.g., /24) Permanent address: remains constant ( e.g., ) home agent: entity in visited network that performs mobility functions on behalf of mobile. correspondent: wants to communicate with mobile

Prof. Younghee Lee 5 5 How do you contact a mobile friend: u search all phone books? u call her parents? u expect her to let you know where he/she is? I wonder where Alice moved to? Consider friend frequently changing addresses, how do you find her?

Prof. Younghee Lee 6 6 Mobility: approaches u Let routing handle it: routers advertise permanent address of mobile-nodes-in-residence via usual routing table exchange. –routing tables indicate where each mobile located –no changes to end-systems u Let end-systems handle it: –indirect routing: communication from correspondent to mobile goes through home agent, then forwarded to remote –direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of mobile, sends directly to mobile

Prof. Younghee Lee 7 7 Mobility: approaches u Let routing handle it: routers advertise permanent address of mobile-nodes-in-residence via usual routing table exchange. –routing tables indicate where each mobile located –no changes to end-systems u let end-systems handle it: –indirect routing: communication from correspondent to mobile goes through home agent, then forwarded to remote –direct routing: correspondent gets foreign address of mobile, sends directly to mobile not scalable to millions of mobiles

Prof. Younghee Lee 8 8 Mobility: registration End result: u Foreign agent knows about mobile u Home agent knows location of mobile wide area network home network visited network 1 mobile contacts foreign agent on entering visited network 2 foreign agent contacts home agent home: “this mobile is resident in my network”

Prof. Younghee Lee 9 9 Mobility via Indirect Routing wide area network home network visited network correspondent addresses packets using home address of mobile home agent intercepts packets, forwards to foreign agent foreign agent receives packets, forwards to mobile mobile replies directly to correspondent

Prof. Younghee Lee 10 Indirect Routing: comments u Mobile uses two addresses: –permanent address: used by correspondent (hence mobile location is transparent to correspondent) –care-of-address: used by home agent to forward datagrams to mobile u foreign agent functions may be done by mobile itself u triangle routing: correspondent-home-network-mobile –inefficient when correspondent, mobile are in same network

Prof. Younghee Lee 11 Indirect Routing: moving between networks u suppose mobile user moves to another network –registers with new foreign agent –new foreign agent registers with home agent –home agent update care-of-address for mobile –packets continue to be forwarded to mobile (but with new care-of-address) u mobility, changing foreign networks transparent: on going connections can be maintained!

Prof. Younghee Lee 12 Mobility via Direct Routing wide area network home network visited network correspondent requests, receives foreign address of mobile correspondent forwards to foreign agent foreign agent receives packets, forwards to mobile mobile replies directly to correspondent 3

Prof. Younghee Lee 13 Mobility via Direct Routing: comments u overcome triangle routing problem u non-transparent to correspondent: correspondent must get care-of-address from home agent –what if mobile changes visited network?

Prof. Younghee Lee 14 wide area network 1 foreign net visited at session start anchor foreign agent 2 4 new foreign agent 3 5 correspondent agent correspondent new foreign network Accommodating mobility with direct routing u anchor foreign agent: FA in first visited network u data always routed first to anchor FA u when mobile moves: new FA arranges to have data forwarded from old FA (chaining)

Prof. Younghee Lee 15 Mobile IP u Communicate with mobile hosts using their home IP address. –should be transparent to applications and higher level protocols –minimize changes to host and router software u Each area has a home agent and foreign agent that managing packet forwarding. –binding = (IP address, foreign agent address) –binding includes time stamp u Try to short circuit the home location by going directly to the foreign agent. –cache bindings in the appropriate places –protocol to update/invalidate caches –security considerations

Prof. Younghee Lee 16 Mobile IP in IPv4 u Registration process –mobile host registers with home and foreign agent –cache bindings: address, care-of- address u Tunneling is used to forward packets between agents. u Supporting mobility –invalidating old caches explicitly or in a lazy fashion u Many variants and optimizations possible. –Mobile host can be its own foreign agent, e.g. can get local addresses –Source can redirect packet directly to foreign agent Source Home Agent Foreign Agent 1 Foreign Agent 2

Prof. Younghee Lee 17 Mobile IP Goals u IP address encodes the host’s network. –Simplifies routing in the common case: look only at network identifier, but not not at the host id –Makes special cases hard, e.g. what happens when the host moves? u Communicate with mobile hosts using their “home” IP address. –should be transparent to applications and higher level protocols u Minimize changes to host and router software –No changes to communicating host u Security should not get worse.

Prof. Younghee Lee 18 Mobile IP Operation u Agents advertise their presence. –Using ICMP or mobile IP control messages –Mobile host can solicit agent information –Mobile host can determine where it is u Registration process: mobile host registers with home and foreign agent. –Set up binding u Tunneling –forward packets to foreign agent –foreign agent forwards packets to mobile host u Supporting mobility –invalidating old caches in a lazy fashion Source Home Agent Foreign Agent 1 Foreign Agent 2

Prof. Younghee Lee 19 Mobile IP: agent discovery u agent advertisement: foreign/home agents advertise service by broadcasting ICMP messages (typefield = 9) R bit: registration required H,F bits: home and/or foreign agent

Prof. Younghee Lee 20 Optimizations u Mobile host can be its own the foreign agent. –mobile host acquires local IP address –performs tasks of the mobile agent u Short circuit the home location by going directly to the foreign agent. –Routers in the network store cache bindings and intercept and tunnel packets before they the mobile host’s home network –Need a protocol to update/invalidate caches –Raises many security questions and is not in the standard

Prof. Younghee Lee 21 Components of cellular network architecture correspondent MSC wired public telephone network different cellular networks, operated by different providers recall:

Prof. Younghee Lee 22 Handling mobility in cellular networks u home network: network of cellular provider you subscribe to (e.g., Sprint PCS, Verizon) –home location register (HLR): database in home network containing permanent cell phone #, profile information (services, preferences, billing), information about current location (could be in another network) u visited network: network in which mobile currently resides –visitor location register (VLR): database with entry for each user currently in network –could be home network

Prof. Younghee Lee 23 Public switched telephone network mobile user home Mobile Switching Center HLR home network visited network correspondent Mobile Switching Center VLR GSM: indirect routing to mobile 1 call routed to home network 2 home MSC consults HLR, gets roaming number of mobile in visited network 3 home MSC sets up 2 nd leg of call to MSC in visited network 4 MSC in visited network completes call through base station to mobile

Prof. Younghee Lee 24 Mobile Switching Center VLR old BSS new BSS old routing new routing GSM: handoff with common MSC u Handoff goal: route call via new base station (without interruption) u reasons for handoff: –stronger signal to/from new BSS (continuing connectivity, less battery drain) –load balance: free up channel in current BSS –GSM doesn ’ t mandate why to perform handoff (policy), only how (mechanism) u handoff initiated by old BSS

Prof. Younghee Lee 25 Mobile Switching Center VLR old BSS GSM: handoff with common MSC new BSS 1. old BSS informs MSC of impending handoff, provides list of 1 + new BSSs 2. MSC sets up path (allocates resources) to new BSS 3. new BSS allocates radio channel for use by mobile 4. new BSS signals MSC, old BSS: ready 5. old BSS tells mobile: perform handoff to new BSS 6. mobile, new BSS signal to activate new channel 7. mobile signals via new BSS to MSC: handoff complete. MSC reroutes call 8 MSC-old-BSS resources released

Prof. Younghee Lee 26 home network Home MSC PSTN correspondent MSC anchor MSC MSC (a) before handoff GSM: handoff between MSCs u anchor MSC: first MSC visited during cal –call remains routed through anchor MSC u new MSCs add on to end of MSC chain as mobile moves to new MSC u IS-41 allows optional path minimization step to shorten multi-MSC chain

Prof. Younghee Lee 27 home network Home MSC PSTN correspondent MSC anchor MSC MSC (b) after handoff GSM: handoff between MSCs u anchor MSC: first MSC visited during cal –call remains routed through anchor MSC u new MSCs add on to end of MSC chain as mobile moves to new MSC u IS-41 allows optional path minimization step to shorten multi-MSC chain

Prof. Younghee Lee 28 Wireless, mobility: impact on higher layer protocols  logically, impact should be minimal … –best effort service model remains unchanged –TCP and UDP can (and do) run over wireless, mobile  … but performance-wise: –packet loss/delay due to bit-errors (discarded packets, delays for link-layer retransmissions), and handoff –TCP interprets loss as congestion, will decrease congestion window un-necessarily –delay impairments for real-time traffic –limited bandwidth of wireless links