Mobile IPv6 High Availability

A mobile node can identify itself using its home address as an identifier. The Mobile IPv6 protocol messages use this identifier in their registration messages. However, for certain deployments it is essential that the mobile node has the capability to identify itself using a logical identifier, such as NAI, rather than a network address. The mobile node identifier option for Mobile IPv6 allows a mobile node to be identified by NAI rather than IPv6 address. This feature enables the network to give a dynamic IPv6 address to a mobile node and authenticate the mobile node using authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA). This option should be used when either Internet Key Exchange (IKE) or IPsec is not used for protecting BUs or binding acknowledgments (BAs).

In order to provide roaming services, a standardized method, such as NAI or a mobile node home address, is needed for identifying users. Roaming may be loosely defined as the ability to use any one of multiple Internet service providers (ISPs) while maintaining a formal, customer-vendor relationship with only one. Examples of where roaming capabilities might be required include ISP confederations and ISP-provided corporate network access support. Other entities interested in roaming capability may include the following:

• Regional ISPs, operating within a particular state or province, that want to combine efforts with those of other regional providers to offer dialup service over a wider area.
• National ISPs that want to combine their operations with those of one or more ISPs in another country to offer more comprehensive dialup service in a group of countries or on a continent.
• Wireless LAN hot spots that provide service to one or more ISPs.
• Businesses that want to offer their employees a comprehensive package of dialup services on a global basis. Those services may include Internet access and secure access to corporate intranets using a VPN.

The authentication protocol for Mobile IPv6 support secures mobile node and home agent signaling using the MN-HA mobility message authentication option, which authenticates the BU and BA messages based on the shared-key-based security association between the mobile node (MN) and the HA. This feature allows Mobile IPv6 to be deployed in a production environment where a non-IPsec authentication method is required. MN-HA consists of a mobility SPI, a shared key, an authentication algorithm, and the mobility message replay protection option.

The mobility SPI is a number from 256 through 4,294,967,296. The key consists of an arbitrary value and is 16 octets in length. The authentication algorithm used is HMAC_SHA1. The replay protection mechanism may use either the sequence number option or the time-stamp option. The MN-HA mobility message authentication option must be the last option in a message with a mobility header if it is the only mobility message authentication option in the message.

When a BU or BA message is received without the MN-HA option and the entity receiving it is configured to use the MN-HA option or has the shared-key-based mobility security association for the mobility message authentication option, the entity discards the received message.

The mobility message replay protection option allows the home agent to verify that a BU has been freshly generated by the mobile node and not replayed by an attacker from some previous BU. This functionality is especially useful for cases where the home agent does not maintain stateful information about the mobile node after the binding entry has been removed. The home agent performs the replay protection check after the BU has been authenticated. The mobility message replay protection option is used by the mobile node for matching the BA with the BU. When the home agent receives the mobility message replay protection option in BU, it must include the mobility message replay protection option in the BA.