Mobility Optimizations Research Group Report
August 2006

Document Status:

   The RG has successfully completed its work on "Route Optimization
   Enhancements for Mobile IPv6". The RG document went through peer
   review and is currently in the RFC Editor's queue waiting to be
   published as an IRTF RFC.

   The document on "IP address Location Privacy Solutions" is making
   good progress, having gone through two iterations. This document is
   outlining solutions for protecting a device identity (and hence user
   identity) from being revealed as a result of mobility. This in
   practice means devising solutions for protecting the permanent
   device identity (such as a Mobile IP Home Address) from onlookers
   and judicious use of the topologically-consistent locator addresses
   with corresponding nodes.

   There is a new RG document on "L2 Abstractions for L3 Fast
   Handovers". This is the result of the effort on understanding and
   unifying the use of L2 primitives in effecting fast IP handovers
   using an Internet Car testbed being built at Keio University. The
   document is already fairly mature, and is expected to go through the
   review quickly.

   The problem statement draft on Network-Initiated Handovers is now
   being pursued in the IETF MIPSHOP WG. The problem statement draft
   for Multicast and Mobility needs more reviews.

Meetings:

   As with previous meetings, the RG met at Montreal. There is likely
   going to be an informal gathering of many RG members at the MobiArch
   Workshop in December.

RG topics:

   There were two topics which have generated interest lately:
   Transport performance during mobility and Policy implications on
   Mobility. The RG has already discussed a few interesting
   experimental studies on transport protocol performance, including
   TCP throughput during handovers in WLAN and performance of streaming
   during handovers between WLAN and CDMA EVDO networks. As we gain
   better understanding in these areas, there has also been interest in
   the interaction between Upper Layer Protocols and Mobile IP. One
   particular problem is connection persistence if the mobile IP home
   address changes, e.g., due to privacy reasons. The RG discussed the
   available alternatives during the Montreal meeting.

   The RG also discussed the implications of policy on mobility
   protocol design. The intent is first understand where the protocol
   design encounters limitations due to policy and investigate writing
   an informational document on the subject. During the process, a
   better policy architecture itself may evolve, but this is not the
   primary purpose on the exercise. There was considerable debate on
   the topic at the Montreal meeting. This is still at its early
   stages, and the discussion is expected to continue.

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