Transparent service for IP roaming.

Abstract

In this thesis, the requirements of mobile networking and transparent service are discussed. A survey of existing technologies for IP roaming is provided. IETF Mobile IP is the most favorable solution available today. However Mobile IP has some limitations: (a) It does not provide transparent service to mobile hosts, i.e. it requires modifications to EP stack in mobile hosts. (b) It is targeted to the wireless mobile hosts in carrier markets, which brings much unnecessary complexity for the enterprise environment, especially for semi-mobile hosts. (c) The handoff of Mobile IP introduces service disruption to IP traffic. To address the issues, a new framework and suite of protocols are proposed. The solution is termed Roaming IP. Roaming IP is targeted for roaming service in enterprise networks which have both semi and full-mobile hosts. To achieve the goals of transparency, fast handoff and simplicity, some novel ideas are used in Roaming IP: Roaming ARP, Roaming ping, Local Service Name Resolution, Roaming directory, Roaming motion detection and two-phase handoff. In the second half of the thesis, an architecture and implementation of Roaming IP is presented. Lastly, experiment results, conclusions and areas of future study are provided.