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Secure Short-Cut Routing for Mobile IP

Trevor Blackwell, Kee Chan, Koling Chang, Thomas Charuhas, James Gwertzman, Brad Karp, H. T. Kung, W. David Li, Dong Lin, Robert Morris, Robert Polansky, Diane Tang, Cliff Young, John Zao

Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Abstract

This paper describes the architecture and implementa-tion of a mobile IP system. It allows mobile hosts to roam between cells implemented with 2-Mbps radio base stations, while maintaining Internet connectivity. The system is being developed as part of a course on wireless networks at Harvard and has been opera-tional since March 1994.

The architecture scales well, both geographi-cally and in the number of mobile hosts supported. It supports secure short-cut routing to mobile hosts using the existing Internet routing system without change. The implementation demonstrates a robust, low complexity realization of the architecture, and provides trade-off opportunities between efficiency and cost.

Measured performance of the mobile system is generally excellent. The system can handle a high rate of location updates, and routes packets almost as efficiently for mobile hosts as the Internet does for stationary hosts. We observe reasonable TCP behavior during hand-offs.

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