3rd Generation Wireless Protocols

I am currently involved with some of Lucent's wireless architects and standards experts to help design 3rd generation wireless data networking protocols. Our point of view is that IETF protocols including Mobile IP should be used as much as possible, since these will in general help to simplify the architecture and bring down costs. However, Mobile IP should be "glued" to the cellular network in a way that makes sense in terms of efficient usage of radio resources and appropriate support for Virtual Private Networking (VPN) services.

We have authored or co-authored many proposals to the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) TR45.6 study group, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Some of these are available below. Also included are references to documents authored by others that will play a valuable role in the 3rd generation Mobile IP architecture.

• An overview of the issues we have addressed can be found in the paper An Internet Infrastructure for Cellular CDMA Networks Using Mobile IP, which will appear in an upcoming issue of IEEE Personal Communications Magazine. Please adhere to the appropriate copyright restrictions.
• The Mobile IP Session Identification Extension defines mechanisms whereby a mobile node can have several simultaneous sessions opened for the same NAI on the same Home Agent. It also describes procedures for managing a dynamically assigned address after returning home.
• THEMA is an (out-of-date) proposal for the interface between cellular networks and Mobile IP Foreign Agents.
• Mobile IP Based Micro-Mobility Management Protocol in the Third Generation Wireless Network is a revised proposal for this interface that provides additional support for tunneled link-layer data (in contrast to THEMA, which only supported network-layer data). This draft includes authors from many companies and represents the consensus of the 3GPP2 membership. A version of this protocol is also being written into the Inter-Operability Specification v4 being developed by 3GPP2.
• 3G Wireless Data Provider Architecture Using Mobile IP and AAA is a contribution from TR45.6 into the IETF, giving an overview of their planned use of Mobile IP in CDMA networks.
• TR45.6/3GPP2 also produced a set of AAA requirements.
• We made important contributions to the Mobile IP Network Access Identifier draft and the Mobile IP Challenge/Response draft.