An experimental evaluation of a HIP based network mobility scheme

In this paper, the authors present and evaluate a network mobility scheme based on Host Identity Protocol (HIP). The cryptographic host identifiers are combined with an authorization mechanism and used for delegating the mobility management signalling rights between nodes in the architecture. While the delegation of the signalling rights scheme itself is a known concept, the trust model presented in this paper differs from the MIPv6 NEMO solution. In the presented approach, the mobile routers are authorized to send location updates directly to peer hosts on behalf of the mobile hosts without opening the solution for re-direction attacks. This is the first time the characteristics of the new scheme is measured in the HIP moving network context using a real implementation. The trust model makes it possible to support route optimization and minimize over-the-air signalling and renumbering events in the moving network. The measurements also reveal new kinds of anomalies in the protocol implementation and design when data integrity and confidentiality protection are integrated into signalling aggregation. The authors propose solutions for these anomalies.