Mobile Inter-networking with IPv6 : Concepts, Principles and Practices

Part I

Introduction and Background

As the Internet continues to shape and reshape our lives, there is a parallel phenomenon taking place in wireless (cellular) communication which is equally (if not more) influential. Personal and mobile voice communication has proved to be a major paradigm in the history of human communication. As both the Internet and mobile telephony continue their dramatic advances, their confluence is already emerging in image sharing, instant messaging and even some rudimentary forms of voice communication. However, it is only fair to recognize that this trend is in its infancy, and also perhaps has been affected by the existing Internet and cellular deployment limitations and deficiencies. The following few functionalities are considered necessary in the Mobile Internet:

• An ability to readily provide addressing support for billions of devices without severely restricting the spectrum of applications (and without burdening the network infrastructure itself)

• Easily support movement of users on the Internet from one network (e.g., Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)) to another (e.g., 3G cellular)

• Provide adequate support for security

Perhaps there are others, but the above are arguably essential for a Mobile Internet.

 

In this part of the book, we provide a preliminary introduction to our main subject of Internet Protocol (IP) Mobility. We introduce ...