Subject: [MOBILE-IP] New Mobile-IP Internet Draft

From: Patrice Calhoun <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 15:37:31 -0800

All,

I am submitting a new Internet Draft to the secretariat. I am including
the I-Ds abstract below for your information. If you wish to get your
hands on this draft before it is available in the archives, you can
retrieve it at www.diameter.org/draft-calhoun-mobileip-proactive-fa-00.txt.

The essence of the draft is that fast hand-offs using Mobile IP is a
difficult thing to do. The route optimization draft proposes the binding
update, that allows for a quicker hand-off, but there are still two
issues when the binding update is used alone:

1. how does the new foreign agent get the security association from the
   previous foreign agent.
2. the mobile node must listen for advertisements in order to initiate
   the hand-off.

The new proposal allows the new Foreign Agent to take a more proactive
approach, by allowing it to send an indication to the mobile node that it
must perform a hand-off. This proposal still requires that the route
optimization's Binding Update be used between the Foreign Agents.

We believe that this proposal, combined with the route optimization's
Binding Update, will allow for fast hand-offs, similar to those seen in
today's cellular networks. Note, this proposal only works with link
layers that allow the foreign agent to measure signal strength, so one
could not use this proposal over ethernet networks.

Thanks,

PatC
----

Abstract

The Mobile IP WG has been investigating how its protocol can be
used in environments that require fast hand-off, especially
important for real-time applications such as voice and video.
Certain link layers, such as those used in cellular networks,
allow for the measurement of signal strength, which is typically
used to determine when a hand-off is required. This specification
defines extensions to the Mobile IP protocol, which allows the
Foreign Agent to send an unsolicited message to the Mobile Node,
requesting that the Mobile Node register with a new Foreign
Agent.