Global internet roaming with ROAMIP

Abstract

Reachability and session continuity represent two distinct services that global mobility protocols should provide. Reachability is the possibility for Internet hosts to initiate sessions to mobile users. Session continuity refers to mechanisms that ensure that active transport or application layer sessions are not broken due to mobility. We present ROAMIP, a global mobility architecture that uses application layer solutions for global reachability and reuses transparent Mobile IP tunnelling mechanisms to ensure session continuity. ROAMIP eliminates long triangular routes, yet it is compatible with mobility unaware correspondent hosts. It is applicable to IPv6 as well as IPv4 networks. The ROAMIP architecture naturally lends itself to easy, gradual deployment and can reuse existing Mobile IP or SIP message formats. We conclude the paper by showing example traces from an experimental implementation.