Subject: [MOBILE-IP] mobile-router mailing list?

From: Rob Goode <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:52:17 +0100

Dear Ron,

good morning and how are you?

I sent out a message about some work I was doing to the
Mobile IP mailing list on mobile routers yesterday and
received a reply from about fifteen people who are
interested in this topic. I feel that it would be helpful
to have a mailing list to discuss issues connected
with mobile routers and implementation issues, and that
probably the Mobile IP mailing list is not the right
forum as this is a topic for a subset of members rather
than being of interest to all.

As Nortel are hosting the Mobile IP mailing list I am
asking you whether you would also host a mobile-routers
mailing list for discussion of mobile router issues.

Please could you give me a yes/no quite soon as otherwise
I will set up an egroups mailing list - I wish to strike
whilst the iron is hot, as one might say.

Cheers,

Rob Goode
NC3A-NL

---

From: Basavaraj Patil <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 14:32:39 -0600

>whilst the iron is hot, as one might say.

Rob,

Mobile IP covers both mobile nodes as well as mobile
routers. I believe you have raised this point earlier at the time when
we were doing the new charter for this WG. Discussion on this topic is
very much part of the charter. I am sure there are many of us on this
list who are just as interested in this topic (maybe not apparent). So
I would argue against going off and creating a separate mailing list
to deal with this topic.

Regards,

-Basavaraj

---

From: Rob Goode <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:37:46 +0100

Dear Basavaraj,

my comments are below. I leave it to you whether we have
another mailing list or not.

> I would argue against going off and creating a separate mailing list

I fully agree with you that the Mobile IP WG charter covers
mobile routers as well as mobile hosts, and yes it was me
who was arguing for that when the charter was last revised.

I fully agree that mobile routers are a valid topic for
discussion on the mobile ip mailing list.

What I was trying to say (but obviously failed to make clear)
was that implementation issues of interest to a small number of
people trying to get a mobile router running in their lab
was probably not of interest to all the 1202 people on the
mobile ip mailing list, and that this seemed worth setting up
a new mailing list for. I was thinking there may be some
discussion on the mobile router hints I have sent out, and
that may grow to discuss changes to other source codes available
for implementing mobile ip. I suppose I should have said
a "mr-implementors" mailing list.

What I propose then is that you as the WG chair are the
appropriate person to arrange an additional mailing list if
you deem it useful. If you deem it better to have it on
the mobile ip mailing list then that is fine with me, of
course there may not be any mobile router discussions in
which case the point is moot. For now then, all discussions
are on the mobile ip mailing list and there is no other
list.

Cheers,

Rob Goode

---

From: Thomas Eklund <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:49:09 +0100

Why should there be a separate mailing list for nodes that only supports a
subset of mobile ip i.e correspondent node and home agent functionality =
"mobile router"....?

I simply dont understand that..?

There is good events like the upcoming Conectathon 2000 that SUN is hosting
to test mobile ip implementations against eachother.

I'm quite sure that if you only want to test your correspondent node and
home agent functionality that you are welcome ther to test it.

If you mean a mobile router in a handset where you have a ad-hoc network
(like blutooth on one side) and a mobile ip network on the other side then
it is discussed within the MANET WG...

Best Regards Thomas

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rob Goode [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 11:38 AM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: [MOBILE-IP] mobile-router mailing list?
>
>
> Dear Basavaraj,
>

---

From: Rob Goode <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 16:18:04 +0100

Dear Thomas,

Thomas Eklund wrote on Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:49:09 +0100

> subset of mobile ip i.e correspondent node and home agent functionality =

A "mobile router" is a term that I am using to mean a RFC 2002 Mobile Node
implementation which is on a platform that has two or more interfaces
and can do IP forwarding between them. One or more of the interfaces
run the mobile IP protocol, and one or more interfaces do not run
the mobile IP protocol. I think that this use of the term is correct
within the Mobile IP community, but the term "mobile router" certainly
has other meanings in other communities. The utility of a mobile router
is to act as the gateway to a mobile network, by which I mean a
network (usually a LAN) which changes its point of attachment to an
Internet or Intranet, thereby causing itself to be unroutable unless
some mechanism (routing table updates, Mobile IP, DNS updates, Manet,
cellular IP etc.) is used. An example I am thinking of is a ship with
an onboard network which uses different bearer networks (radio, satellite,
pierside cables etc.) to reach an Intranet. I rather think that a
mobile router is a useful architectural building block for real world
networks - but I may be wrong.

Mobile routers are part of RFC2002, and are described in the "textbooks"
by Charles. E. Perkins and Jim Soloman.

> I simply dont understand that..?

Did I help clarify the term mobile router? The reason I was proposing an
additional list was to discuss the implementation details of particular
instantiations, e.g. what command line switches do I use? Why did it
core dump? what does this compiler error mean? ...those sort of
things. Basavaraj can decide.

For architectural discussions of mobile routers and everything else
derived from RFC2002 then the mobile ip mailing list is the right
place.

My apologies for the confusion caused.

Cheers,

Rob Goode

---

From: Basavaraj Patil <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:11:42 -0600

Rob,

I guess we could create another discussion list specifically for
discussion of Mobile Router implementations and the issues
associated. The 1202 people on this list may actually appreciate not
receiving mail that they are not very keen on. I will go ahead and ask
Ron Young to create this discussion list and let you know when it is
done. You could announce the creation and subscription info on the
Mobile IP mailing list once it's done.

Regards,
-Basavaraj