Wireless Mobile IP Networking
Enabled by
AirBoss™ Wireless Solutions
Mobile IP Solution
Technical Product Summary
Executive Summary
With the rapid growth and availability of wireless data networks, wireless communications tools and
Internet standards, mobile workers are finding new ways to do business in today’s competitive
environment. The need for the mobile worker to access mission critical information requires access to
corporate databases and Internet/Intranet applications. In addition, convenient and reliable file transfer,
integrated messaging, and personalized information delivery allow the mobile employee to work at peak
productivity levels.
Successful communications between mobile workers and their corporate environment requires the right
combination of technologies. From a business standpoint, these technologies must be cost-effective and
easy to use. For long-term viability, they should be based on open system architectures and industry
standard interfaces.
Virtual Private Networks have emerged to provide networking solutions to a growing mobile workforce.
A Virtual Private Network allows businesses to provide their mobile employees with access to corporate
information and applications by connecting them to the enterprise using public networks, such as the
Internet. By using public networks as the communications backbone, a Virtual Private Network provides
a low cost extension to the enterprise, while offering secure access to an open networking environment.
Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore)
AirBoss Wireless Solutions’ portfolio of wireless data and messaging products offers a Mobile
IP solution which provides the foundation to create Virtual Private Networks.
What is a Virtual Private Network?
A Virtual Private Network is created when a mobile user connects a data terminal to a foreign network,
either via dial-in or public networks, and establishes a presence equivalent to a direct connection to the
home network.
The AirBoss Mobile IP solution is intended to enable the creation of Virtual Private Networks by using
the Internet as the communications backbone to connect mobile users. The following features
characterize Virtual Private Networks:

Remote presence - the ability to establish remote network connections and still appear to be
connected to the home network.

Network independence - the ability to roam among networks (e.g., BellSouth Wireless Data Network
- CDPD - Wireless LAN – Ethernet). Traditionally, IP network independence (roaming) is done over
the same media access (e.g., SLIP, PPP, Ethernet). Telcordia Technologies Virtual Private Network
implementation offers the ability to roam across not only single media IP networks, but across
multiple wireless and wireline media without user intervention.

Security - the ability to help create secure channels for authentication, data integrity, and data
privacy.
The AirBoss Mobile IP solution is unique in that it provides wireless and wireline IP network and media
roaming/communications to both Intranet and Internet services. The ability for mobile users to roam
seamlessly and without intervention among radio frequency (RF) networks and wireline networks allows
the system to operate at maximum system efficiency.
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Mobile IP Description
Traditional implementations of the TCP/IP suite of protocols assume that a node’s IP address uniquely
identifies its point of attachment to the Internet. In this environment, a node could maintain continuous
connectivity while moving between different networks in one of two ways:
1) the mobile node could alter its IP address every time it moved, or
2) it could have host specific routes propagated to all possible correspondents throughout the
Internet.
Both of these scenarios are undesirable. Altering the IP address would cause the breakdown of existing
transport level connections, while the propagation of host routes causes severe scaling problems,
especially with an ever-increasing number of mobile nodes seeking the host node.
Mobile IP is an Internet industry standard that enhances the IP protocol to remedy these existing
problems and allows transparent routing of IP datagrams to mobile nodes on the Internet. Figure 1 shows
a high-level diagram of the AirBoss Mobile IP Network Configuration.
Mobile Node A
Home Address - 192.4.18.124
Home Agent
192.4.18.74
Wireless
Local Area Network
(Home Network)
Access
Point
A- 192.4.18.124 - Home
B- 192.4.18.125 - c/o 198.223.32.86
Wireless
Local Area Network
Access Point
192.4.18.0
AirBoss
Server
192.4.18.32
Generic
Router
Internet
Wireless
Wide Area Network
(Foreign Network)
Foreign Agent
198.223.32.86
(Care-of Address)
198.223.32.0
Access
Point
Wireless
Wide Area Network
Access Point
Mobile Node B
Home Address - 192.4.18.125
Care-of Address - 198.223.32.86
Figure 1 - AirBoss Mobile IP Network Configuration
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Using the Mobile IP solution, the mobile nodes in Figure 1 are always identified by their permanent
home address, regardless of their current point of attachment to the Internet. In addition to this
permanent home address, the mobile node, while away from its home network, is also associated with a
temporary care-of address, which provides information about the current point of attachment to the
Internet. Mobile IP makes the goal of location-transparent communications possible by defining a set of
mechanisms for mobile nodes to acquire a care-of address. It also ensures a means by which packets
destined for the mobile node (and hence delivered by traditional IP routing mechanisms to the mobile
node’s home network) are ultimately forwarded to the present location of the mobile node, as indicated
by its current care-of address.
The basic element in this protocol is the Mobile Node, also referred to as the mobile host, which roams
among its home network and other foreign networks. Mobility is achieved in part by having a host on the
mobile node’s home network, called the Home Agent, which is responsible for trapping packets destined
to the mobile node, and then forwarding them to the present location of the mobile node, if it is away
from home. The present location of the mobile node is in the form of a care-of address. This care-of
address is obtained either directly by the mobile node using an external assignment mechanism (i.e.,
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol [DHCP]) or from a special node, called a Foreign Agent, which is
present on the foreign network and provides mobility services to visiting mobile nodes. Packets are
forwarded from the Home Agent to the care-of address by encapsulating and tunneling them to the careof address. If the care-of address at the end of the tunnel is that of the Foreign Agent, the packets are
decapsulated by the Foreign Agent and forwarded by link-level mechanisms locally to the mobile node.
Mobile IP Security
Security is an integral part of building a Virtual Private Network solution. The AirBoss Mobile IP
Network Configuration utilizes Mobile IP encryption to form a secure channel between the AirBoss
client and server to support user authentication, data integrity, and data privacy in mobile environments.
Figure 2 illustrates how a mobile client can securely connect to an application server residing in the
mobile client’s enterprise or home network through foreign wireless and wireline networks. Using the
AirBoss Mobile IP encryption, a secure channel is formed which allows various foreign networks to
become extensions of the home network.
AirBoss MIP
Client
Wireless
Network
ISP - B
Subnet
ISP - A
Subnet
AirBoss
Server
Internet
Enterprise
Applications
Mobile IP Encryption
Figure 2 - AirBoss Mobile IP Security
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Benefits of the AirBoss Mobile IP Solution
The AirBoss Mobile IP solution offers customers the following benefits:

Helps to provide secure access to an open networking environment using Mobile IP encryption
between the AirBoss client and server

Allows mobile workers to establish a remote network presence in a cost efficient manner

Intends to enable least-cost routing while providing maximum system efficiency

Provides wireless and wireline internetworking

Provides seamless roaming across networks without user intervention

Offers a low-cost solution for adding mobility to Intranets/Internet
Solutions for Mobility Applications
Telcordia Technologies AirBoss Mobile IP solution can be used to enable seamless roaming between
wireless networks to extend enterprise applications to mobile workers. The capabilities provided by the
Mobile IP solution creates enhanced services for a variety of vertical applications. Vertical markets,
such as trucking and transportation, healthcare, public safety and utilities, have realized the benefits that
Mobile IP can offer to improve communications across the enterprise.
The AirBoss Mobile IP solution not only provides reliable wireless transport over wide-area networks
(i.e., BellSouth Wireless Data Network, CDPD), but allows a mobile data terminal to seamlessly migrate
between a wireless wide-area network and a wireless LAN.
Figure 3 represents the Mobile IP architecture used in the AirBoss solution to enable wireless mobile
database applications:
Intranet
Wireless
Wide-Area
Network
Mobile Data
Terminals
contain both
Wireless LAN
and Wireless
Wide-Area
Network
Modems
AirBoss
Server
Internet
Enterprise
Applications
Wireless LAN
Access Points
LAN
Figure 3 - Enabling Wireless Mobile Database Applications
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This solution allows a mobile data terminal to seamlessly migrate between a wireless LAN and a wireless
wide-area network (e.g., BellSouth Wireless Data, CDPD). The roaming features enable uninterrupted
data service connections between the AirBoss Server and a mobile data terminal, which is also setup to
relay data over wireless wide-area networks.
While out of range of the wireless local area network, the mobile employee, using a mobile data terminal,
has access to enterprise applications over a wireless wide-area network. However, as the mobile data
terminal comes into range of the fixed wireless LAN, the AirBoss Mobile IP software automatically
migrates to the fixed wireless LAN, allowing cost-effective access to enterprise information. In
summary, the Mobile IP solution is intended to provide least-cost routing between a wireless LAN and a
wireless wide area network, such as BellSouth Wireless Data or CDPD.
Summary
The success of a corporation in today’s competitive environment will depend largely on its ability to
increase productivity, while providing the highest level of customer service. Reliable, cost-effective
networking solutions will be a critical component of a corporation’s communications infrastructure. The
AirBoss Mobile IP solution is intended to enable enterprises to create their own Virtual Private
Networks, thus providing:

low initial costs

low operating costs

solution flexibility

significant productivity gains
By providing seamless network roaming and communications capabilities, Mobile IP provides a
networking solution to take enterprises into the 21st century and beyond.
Telcordia Technologies
AirBoss Wireless Solutions...
providing data communications solutions for industries on the move.
For more information contact your local sales account representative or call:
1-800-521-2673 (U.S. and Canada)
1-732-699-5800 (in all other countries)
Or discover us on the Internet
http://www.telcordia.com/airboss
Copyright  2000 Telcordia Technologies. All rights reserved.
AirBoss and AirBrowse are trademarks of Telcordia Technologies.
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