RFC 2103 (rfc2103) - Page 2 of 17
Mobility Support for Nimrod : Challenges and Solution Approaches
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2103 Nimrod Mobility Support February 1997 this. First, mobility is a non-trivial problem whose implications and requirements are still not well understood and will perhaps be understood only when a mobile internetwork is deployed on a large scale. Second, a number of groups (for instance the Mobile-IP working group of the IETF) are studying the problem by itself and it is not our intention to duplicate those efforts. This attitude towards mobility is consistent with Nimrod's general philosophy of flexibility, adaptability and incremental change. While a mobility solution is not part of the "core" Nimrod architecture, Nimrod does require that the solution have certain characteristics. It is the purpose of this document to discuss some of these requirements and evaluate approaches towards meeting them. We begin by identifying the precise nature of the functionality needed to accommodate mobile entities (section 2). Following that, we discuss the effects of mobility on Nimrod (section 3). Next, we classify current and possible approaches to a solution for mobility (section 4) and finally (in section 5) we describe how mobility can be implemented using the IETF's Mobile-IP protocol. This document uses many terms and concepts from the Nimrod Architecture document [CCS96] and some terms and concepts (in section 5) from the Nimrod Functionality document [RS96]. Much of the discussion assumes that you have read at least the Nimrod Architecture document [CCS96]. 2 Mobility : A Modular Perspective Nimrod has a basic feature that helps accommodate mobility in a graceful and natural manner, namely, the separation of the endpoint naming space from the locator space. The Nimrod architecture [CCS96] associates an endpoint with a globally unique endpoint identifier (EID) and an endpoint label (EL). The location of the endpoint within the Internetwork topology is given by its locator. When an endpoint moves, its EID and EL remain the same, but its locator might change. Nimrod can route a packet to the endpoint after the move, provided it is able to obtain its new locator. Ramanathan Informational
