UNIT II MOBILE NETWORK AND TRANSPORT LAYERS

Mobile IP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol-Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols–

Multicast routing-TCP overWireless Networks – Indirect TCP – Snooping TCP –
Mobile TCP – Fast Retransmit / Fast Recovery –Transmission/Timeout Freezing-
Selective Retransmission – Transaction Oriented TCP- TCP over 2.5 / 3G
wirelessNetworks

Mobile IP
It’s a communication protocol (created by extending Internet Protocol, IP) that allows the
users to move from one network to another with the same IP address. It ensures that the
communication will continue without the user’s sessions or connections being dropped.

Need for Mobile IP

Mobile IP is a network layer solution for homogenous and heterogeneous mobility on the
global Internet which is scalable, robust, secure and which allows nodes to maintain all ongoing
communications while moving.

The IP addresses are designed to work with stationary hosts because part of the address
defines the network to which the host is attached. A host cannot change its IP address without
terminating on-going sessions and restarting them after it acquires a new address. Other link layer
mobility solutions exist but are not sufficient enough for the global Internet. Mobility is the ability
of a node to change its point-of-attachment while maintaining all existing communications and
using the same IP address.

Design Goals: Mobile IP was developed as a means for transparently dealing with problems of
mobile users. Mobile IP was designed to make the size and the frequency of required routing
updates as small as possible. It was designed to make it simple to implement mobile node software.
It was designed to avoid solutions that require mobile nodes to use multiple addresses.

Requirements: There are several requirements for Mobile IP to make it as a standard. Some of
them are:
1. Compatibility: The whole architecture of internet is very huge and a new standard cannot
introduce changes to the applications or network protocols already in use. Mobile IP is to be
integrated into the existing operating systems.
2. Transparency: Mobility remains invisible for many higher layer protocols and applications.
Higher layers continue to work even if the mobile computer has changed its point of
attachment to the network and even notice a lower bandwidth and some interruption in the
service.
3. Scalability and efficiency: The efficiency of the network should not be affected even if a
new mechanism is introduced into the internet. Enhancing IP for mobility must not
generate many new messages flooding the whole network.
4. Security: Mobility possesses many security problems. A minimum requirement is the
authentication of all messages related to the management of mobile IP. It must be sure for the
IP layer if it forwards a packet to a mobile host that this host really is the receiver of the
packet.
Terminologies:
1. Mobile Node (MN) is the hand-held communication device that the user carries e.g. Cell
phone.
2. Home Network is a network to which the mobile node originally belongs as per its
assigned IP address (home address).
3. Home Agent (HA) is a router in-home network to which the mobile node was originally
connected. The HA provides several services for the MN and is located in the home
network. The tunnel for packets toward the MN starts at the HA. The HA maintains
a location registry, i.e., it is informed of the MN’s location by the current COA. Three
alternatives for the implementation of an HA exist.

• The HA can be implemented on a router that is responsible for the home

network. This is obviously the best position, because without optimizations to
mobile IP, all packets for the MN have to go through the router anyway.

• If changing the router’s software is not possible, the HA could also be implemented
on an arbitrary node in the subnet. One disadvantage of this solution is the double
crossing of the router by the packet if the MN is in a foreign network.

• Finally, a home network is not necessary at all. The HA could be again on the
‘router’ but this time only acting as a manager for MNs belonging to a virtual home
network. All MNs are always in a foreign network with this solution.

Fig. Connect HA to MN with router

A CN is connected via a router to the internet, as are the home network and the
foreign network. The HA is implemented on the router connecting the home network
with the internet, an FA is implemented on the router to the foreign network. The MN is
currently in the foreign network. The tunnel for packets toward the MN starts at the HA and
ends at the FA, for the FA has the COA in the above example.
4. Home Address is the permanent IP address assigned to the mobile node (within its home
network).
5. Foreign Network is the current network to which the mobile node is visiting (away from
its home network).
 6. Foreign Agent (FA) is a router in a foreign network to which the mobile node is currently
connected. The packets from the home agent are sent to the foreign agent which delivers
them to the mobile node.
7. Correspondent Node (CN) is a device on the internet communicating to the mobile node.
8. Care-of Address (COA) is the temporary address used by a mobile node while it is moving
away from its home network. The COA defines the current location of the MN from
an IP point of view. All IP packets sent to the MN are delivered to the COA, not directly to
the IP address of the MN. Packet delivery toward the MN is done using a tunnel,
i.e., the COA marks the tunnel endpoint, i.e., the address where packets exit the
tunnel. There are two different possibilities for the location of the COA:
• Foreign agent COA
• Co-located COA
9. Foreign agent COA, the COA could be located at the FA, i.e., the COA is an IP address of
the FA. The FA is the tunnel end-point and forwards packets to the MN. Many MN using
the FA can share this COA as a common COA.
10. Co-located COA, the COA is co-located if the MN temporarily acquired an additional IP
address which acts as COA. This address is now topologically correct, and the tunnel
endpoint is at the MN. Co-located addresses can be acquired using services such as DHCP.

IP packet delivery
Consider the above example in which a correspondent node (CN) wants to send an IP
packet to the MN. One of the requirements of mobile IP was to support hiding the mobility of the
MN. CN does not need to know anything about the MN’s current location and sends the
packet as usual to the IP address of MN as shown below.
CN sends an IP packet with MN as a destination address and CN as a source address. The internet,
not having information on the current location of MN, routes the packet to the router responsible
for the home network of MN. This is done using the standard routing 4 mechanisms of the internet.
➢ The HA now intercepts the packet, knowing that MN is currently not in its home network.
➢ The packet is not forwarded into the subnet as usual, but encapsulated and tunnelled to the
COA.
➢ A new header is put in front of the old IP header showing the COA as new destination and
HA as source of the encapsulated packet (step 2).
➢ The foreign agent now decapsulates the packet, i.e., removes the additional header, and
forwards the original packet with CN as source and MN as destination to the MN (step 3).
➢ Again, for the MN mobility is not visible. It receives the packet with the same sender and
receiver address as it would have done in the home network.
➢ Sending packets from the mobile node (MN) to the CN is comparatively simple. The MN
sends the packet as usual with its own fixed IP address as source and CN’s address
as destination (step 4).
Agent Discovery
A mobile node has to find a foreign agent when it moves away from its home network. To
solve this problem, mobile IP describes two methods:
➢ Agent Advertisement
➢ Agent Registration

Agent Advertisement
For this method, foreign agents and home agents advertise their presence periodically using
special agent advertisement messages, which are broadcast into the subnet. Mobile IP does not use
a new packet type for agent advertisement; it uses the router advertisement packet of ICMP, and
appends an agent advertisement message. The agent advertisement packet according to RFC 1256
with the extension for mobility is shown below:

Agent Registration

Having received a COA, the MN has to register with the HA. The main purpose of the
registration is to inform the HA of the current location for correct forwarding of packets.
Registration can be done in two different ways depending on the location of the COA.
➢ If the COA is at the FA, the MN sends its registration request containing the COA to the FA
which forwards the request to the HA.
➢ The HA now sets up a mobility binding, containing the mobile node’s home IP address
and the current COA.
➢ It also contains the lifetime of the registration which is negotiated during the
registration process.
➢ Registration expires automatically after the lifetime and is deleted; so, an MN
should reregister before expiration.
➢ This mechanism is necessary to avoid mobility bindings which are no longer used.
After setting up the mobility binding, the HA sends a reply message back to the FA
which forwards it to the MN.
➢ If the COA is co-located, registration can be simpler, the MN sends the request directly to
the HA and vice versa.

Tunnelling and encapsulation

A tunnel establishes a virtual pipe for data packets between a tunnel entry and a
tunnel endpoint. Packets entering a tunnel are forwarded inside the tunnel and leave the
tunnel unchanged. Tunneling, i.e., sending a packet through a tunnel is achieved by using
encapsulation.
Encapsulation
Its the mechanism of taking a packet consisting of packet header and data and putting it
into the data part of a new packet. The reverse operation, taking a packet out of the data
part of another packet, is called decapsulation. Encapsulation and decapsulation are the
operations typically performed when a packet is transferred from a higher protocol layer to a
lower layer or from a lower to a higher layer respectively.
The HA takes the original packet with the MN as destination, puts it into the data
part of a new packet and sets the new IP header so that the packet is routed to the COA.
The new header is called outer header.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
What is DHCP?
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is an application layer protocol that allows a server
to dynamically assign IP addresses & more information to hosts connected to LAN.
• IP Address
• Subnet Mask
• Default-Gateway
• DNS-Server
DHCP is based on a client-server model and works on the discovery, offer, request, and
Acknowledgement. DHCP uses the port number for:
• DHCP Server uses Port No. 68
• DHCP Client uses Port No. 67
It employs UDP services and is a client-server protocol, and a pool of addresses is used to assign IP
addresses. In DHCP, the client and the server exchange mainly 4 DHCP messages in order to make
a connection, also called the DHCP DORA process.

DHCP DORA Process

DORA stands for Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledge. DHCP uses Dora Process to provide an
IP Address to hosts or client machines. It collects all of the IP addresses from the central server that
are accessible and gives them to hosts that want to connect to the network.

1. Discover
When you select the option “Obtain IP automatically,” it means that a DHCP client is requesting IP
to the DHCP server, and this discover request is sent out in the form of a broadcast request using
255.255.255.255 This request will reach every device in the network including DHCP server too.
Header info of discovery message –
• Source IP address: 0.0.0.0
• Destination IP address: 255.255.255.255
• Source MAC address: MAC address of DHCP clients
• Destination MAC address: FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
2. Offer
Once the DHCP accepts the discover request sent by the client. The DHCP will offer some IP to
the client.
Header info of offer message –
• Source IP address: IP of DHCP Server Destination
• IP address: 255.255.255.255
• Source MAC address: DHCP Server’s MAC address
• Destination MAC address: MAC add of DHCP clients
3. Request
The client will select the IP address accordingly and request to the DHCP server that “I want to use
this IP”. So, the client will send a request to use the specific selected IP.
Header info of request message –
• Source IP address: 0.0.0.0
• Destination IP address: 255.255.255.255
• Source MAC address: MAC add of DHCP clients
• Destination MAC address: MAC add of DHCP server
4. Acknowledge
The DHCP server will receive the request sent by the client machine and then acknowledge the
requested IP.
Header info of acknowledge message –
• Source IP address: IP Address of DHCP Server
• Destination IP address: 255.255.255.255
• Source MAC address: MAC address of DHCP server
• Destination MAC address: MAC add of DHCP clients

Discover Via Client using port no. 67

Offer Via server using port no. 68

Request Via Client using port no. 67

Acknowledge Via server using port no. 68

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

• DHCP was developed based on bootstrap protocol (BOOTP). DHCP provides several types
of information to a user including its IP address.
• To manage dynamic configuration information and dynamic IP addresses, IETF
standardized an extension to BOOTP known as dynamic host configuration protocol
(DHCP).
• The DHCP client and server work together to handle the roaming status and toassign IP
address on a new network efficiently. The DHCP server allocates an IP address from a pool
of IP addresses to a client.
 • The BOOTP protocol is used for booting (starting) computers from the network.These are
popularly used in case of diskless computers. Whenever a client requests an IP address from
the server machine, BOOTP searches a table which matches to its physical address.

Benefits of DHCP
• Reliable IP address configuration. DHCP minimizes configuration errors caused by
manual IP address configuration, such as typographical errors, or address conflicts caused
by the assignment of an IP address to more than one computer at the same time.
• Reduced network administration. DHCP includes the following features to reduce
network administration:
➢ Centralized and automated TCP/IP configuration.
➢ The ability to define TCP/IP configurations from a central location.
➢ The ability to assign a full range of additional TCP/IP configuration values by
means of DHCP options.
➢ The efficient handling of IP address changes for clients that must be updated
frequently, such as those for portable computers that move to
➢ different locations on a wireless network.
➢ The forwarding of initial DHCP messages by using a DHCP relay agent, thus
eliminating the need to have a DHCP server on every subnet.

Why use DHCP

• Every device on a TCP/IP-based network must have a unique unicast IP address to access
the network and its resources.
 • Without DHCP, IP addresses must be configured manually for new computers or computers
that are moved from one subnet to another, and manually reclaimed for computers that are
removed from the network.
• DHCP enables this entire process to be automated and managed centrally. The DHCP server
maintains a pool of IP addresses and leases an address to any DHCP-enabled client when it
starts up on the network.
• Because the IP addresses are dynamic (leased) rather than static (permanently assigned),
addresses no longer in use are automatically returned to the pool for reallocation.
• The network administrator establishes DHCP servers that maintain TCP/IP configuration
information and provide address configuration to DHCP-enabled clients in the form of a
lease offer.

The DHCP server stores the configuration information in a database, which includes:
• Valid TCP/IP configuration parameters for all clients on the network.
• Valid IP addresses, maintained in a pool for assignment to clients, as well as excluded
addresses.
• Reserved IP addresses associated with particular DHCP clients. This allows consistent
assignment of a single IP address to a single DHCP client.
• The lease duration, or the length of time for which the IP address can be used before a lease
renewal is required.
•
A DHCP-enabled client, upon accepting a lease offer, receives:
• A valid IP address for the subnet to which it is connecting.
• Requested DHCP options, which are additional parameters that a DHCP server is
configured to assign to clients. Some examples of DHCP options are Router (default
gateway), DNS Servers, and DNS Domain Name. For a full list of DHCP options, see
“DHCP Tools and Settings.”

Significance of Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

• DHCP is an extension to the BOOTP and compatible with it. For example, if a host is
running BOOTP, it can also request configuration (example: static configuration) from a
DHCP server node.
• The importance of DHCP in a mobile computing environment is that it provides temporary
IP addresses whenever a host moves from one network to another network.
DHCP supports the following three important mechanisms for IP address allocation:
➢ Automatic allocation: In automatic allocation, DHCP assigns a permanent IP address to a
particular client.
➢ Dynamic allocation: In dynamic allocation, DHCP assigns IP address to a client for a
specific period of time.
➢ Manual allocation: In manual allocation, a client’s IP address is assigned by the network
administrator, where the DHCP is used to inform the address assigned to clients.

Working of DHCP
The working of DHCP is as follows:
DHCP works on the Application layer of the TCP/IP Protocol. The main task of DHCP is to
dynamically assigns IP Addresses to the Clients and allocate information on TCP/IP configuration
to Clients. For more, you can refer to the Article Working of DHCP.
The DHCP port number for the server is 67 and for the client is 68. It is a client-server protocol
that uses UDP services. An IP address is assigned from a pool of addresses. In DHCP, the client
and the server exchange mainly 4 DHCP messages in order to make a connection, also called the
DORA process, but there are 8 DHCP messages in the process.

Fig. Working of DHCP

DORA 4 Message Pros
1. DHCP discover message: This is the first message generated in the communication
process between the server and the client. This message is generated by the Client host in
order to discover if there is any DHCP server/servers are present in a network or not. This
message is broadcasted to all devices present in a network to find the DHCP server. This
message is 342 or 576 bytes long

DHCP discover message

As shown in the figure, the source MAC address (client PC) is 08002B2EAF2A, the destination
MAC address(server) is FFFFFFFFFFFF, the source IP address is 0.0.0.0(because the PC has had
no IP address till now) and the destination IP address is 255.255.255.255 (IP address used for
broadcasting). As they discover message is broadcast to find out the DHCP server or servers in the
network therefore broadcast IP address and MAC address is used.
2. DHCP offers a message: The server will respond to the host in this message specifying the
unleased IP address and other TCP configuration information. This message is broadcasted by the
server. The size of the message is 342 bytes. If there is more than one DHCP server present in the
network then the client host will accept the first DHCP OFFER message it receives. Also, a server
ID is specified in the packet in order to identify the server.

DHCP offer message

Now, for the offer message, the source IP address is 172.16.32.12 (server’s IP address in the
example), the destination IP address is 255.255.255.255 (broadcast IP address), the source MAC
address is 00AA00123456, the destination MAC address is FFFFFFFFFFFF. Here, the offer
message is broadcast by the DHCP server therefore destination IP address is the broadcast IP
address and destination MAC address is FFFFFFFFFFFF and the source IP address is the server IP
address and the MAC address is the server MAC address.
Also, the server has provided the offered IP address 192.16.32.51 and a lease time of 72 hours(after
this time the entry of the host will be erased from the server automatically). Also, the client
identifier is the PC MAC address (08002B2EAF2A) for all the messages.
3. DHCP request message: When a client receives an offer message, it responds by broadcasting a
DHCP request message. The client will produce a gratuitous ARP in order to find if there is any
other host present in the network with the same IP address. If there is no reply from another host,
then there is no host with the same TCP configuration in the network and the message is
broadcasted to the server showing the acceptance of the IP address. A Client ID is also added to
this message.
 DHCP request message
Now, the request message is broadcast by the client PC therefore source IP address is 0.0.0.0(as the
client has no IP right now) and destination IP address is 255.255.255.255 (the broadcast IP address)
and the source MAC address is 08002B2EAF2A (PC MAC address) and destination MAC address
is FFFFFFFFFFFF.
Note – This message is broadcast after the ARP request broadcast by the PC to find out whether
any other host is not using that offered IP. If there is no reply, then the client host broadcast the
DHCP request message for the server showing the acceptance of the IP address and Other TCP/IP
Configuration.
4. DHCP acknowledgment message: In response to the request message received, the server will
make an entry with a specified client ID and bind the IP address offered with lease time. Now, the
client will have the IP address provided by the server.

DHCP acknowledgment message

Now the server will make an entry of the client host with the offered IP address and lease time.
This IP address will not be provided by the server to any other host. The destination MAC address
is FFFFFFFFFFFF and the destination IP address is 255.255.255.255 and the source IP address is
172.16.32.12 and the source MAC address is 00AA00123456 (server MAC address).
Consider the scenario where there is one client and two servers are present. A
typical initialization of a DHCP client is shown below:

Advantages of DHCP
The advantages of using DHCP include:
• Centralized management of IP addresses.
• Centralized and automated TCP/IP configuration.
• Ease of adding new clients to a network.
• Reuse of IP addresses reduces the total number of IP addresses that are required.
• The efficient handling of IP address changes for clients that must be updated frequently,
such as those for portable devices that move to different locations on a wireless network.
• Simple reconfiguration of the IP address space on the DHCP server without needing to
reconfigure each client.
• The DHCP protocol gives the network administrator a method to configure the network
from a centralized area.
• With the help of DHCP, easy handling of new users and the reuse of IP addresses can be
achieved.

Disadvantages of DHCP
The disadvantage of using DHCP is:
• IP conflict can occur.
• The problem with DHCP is that clients accept any server. Accordingly, when another server
is in the vicinity, the client may connect with this server, and this server may possibly send
invalid data to the client.
• The client is not able to access the network in absence of a DHCP Server.
• The name of the machine will not be changed in a case when a new IP Address is assigned.
Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols
Adhoc Basics Concepts
How Is an Ad Hoc Network Set Up without the Infrastructure Support? Adhoc network
is defined as a set of mobile devices can communicate with each other in the absence of any form
of fixed networking infrastructures such as hubs, routers, base stations, etc.

In this figure, suppose the mobile device S wants to communicate with the device D.
➢ Assume that S and D are not within the transmission range of each other and cannot directly
communicate with each other.
➢ They can take the help of node R to relay packets from each other.
➢ R is primarily an independent device and not a networking infrastructure, yet R is acting as
some sort of a router operating at the network (or Internet) layer to facilitate
communication.
 Fig. Adhoc Network Architecture
Routing in a MANET
• In a wired network, a router determines the path that needs to be followed by a packet based
on the information contained within the IP address of the destination, and uses this
information to forward a packet towards its destination.
• In an ad hoc network, such a simple and efficient routing protocol is difficult to deploy.
• In a MANET(Mobile Adhoc Network) the topology of the network and consequently the
routes between different devices change dynamically as nodes move away or fail.
• Packet routing is a critical and complex issue in MANETs.
In Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET), nodes do not know the topology of their network, instead
they have to discover it by their own as the topology in the ad-hoc network is dynamic topology.

1. Pro-active routing protocols: These are also known as table-driven routing protocols. Each
mobile node maintains a separate routing table which contains the information of the routes to all
the possible destination mobile nodes.
Since the topology in the mobile ad-hoc network is dynamic, these routing tables are updated
periodically as and when the network topology changes. It has a limitation that it doesn’t work well
for the large networks as the entries in the routing table becomes too large since they need to
maintain the route information to all possible nodes.
a. Destination Sequenced Distance Vector Routing Protocol (DSDV): It is a pro-
active/table driven routing protocol. It actually extends the distance vector routing protocol
of the wired networks as the name suggests. It is based on the Bellman-ford routing
algorithm. Distance vector routing protocol was not suited for mobile ad-hoc networks due
to count-to-infinity problem. Hence, as a solution Destination Sequenced Distance Vector
Routing Protocol (DSDV) came into picture.
 b. Global State Routing (GSR): It is a pro-active/table driven routing protocol. It actually
extends the link state routing of the wired networks. It is based on the Dijkstra’s routing
algorithm. Link state routing protocol was not suited for mobile ad-hoc networks because in
it, each node floods the link state routing information directly into the whole network i.e.
Global flooding which may lead to the congestion of control packets in the network.
2. Reactive routing protocols: These are also known as on-demand routing protocol. In this type
of routing, the route is discovered only when it is required/needed. The process of route discovery
occurs by flooding the route request packets throughout the mobile network. It consists of two
major phases namely, route discovery and route maintenance.
a. Dynamic Source Routing protocol (DSR): It is a reactive/on-demand routing protocol. In
this type of routing, the route is discovered only when it is required/needed. The process of
route discovery occurs by flooding the route request packets throughout the mobile
network. It consists of two phases:

• Route Discovery: This phase determines the most optimal path for the transmission
of data packets between the source and the destination mobile nodes.

• Route Maintenance: This phase performs the maintenance work of the route as the
topology in the mobile ad-hoc network is dynamic in nature and hence, there are
many cases of link breakage resulting in the network failure between the mobile
nodes.
b. Ad-Hoc On Demand Vector Routing protocol (AODV): It is a reactive/on-demand
routing protocol. It is an extension of dynamic source routing protocol (DSR) and it helps to
remove the disadvantage of dynamic source routing protocol. In DSR, after route discovery,
when the source mobile node sends the data packet to the destination mobile node, it also
contains the complete path in its header. Hence, as the network size increases, the length of
the complete path also increases and the data packet’s header size also increases which
makes the whole network slow.
Hence, Ad-Hoc On Demand Vector Routing protocol came as solution to it. The main
difference lies in the way of storing the path, in AODV Sourcenode does not stores
complete path information, instead of that each not stores information of its previous and
next node. It also operates in two phases: Route discovery and Route maintenance.
3. Hybrid Routing protocol: It basically combines the advantages of both, reactive and pro-active
routing protocols. These protocols are adaptive in nature and adapts according to the zone and
position of the source and destination mobile nodes. One of the most popular hybrid routing
protocol is Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP).
The whole network is divided into different zones and then the position of source and destination
mobile node is observed. If the source and destination mobile nodes are present in the same zone,
then proactive routing is used for the transmission of the data packets between them.
Applications
a. Communication among portable computers
b. Environmental monitoring
c. Military
d. Emergency applications

Communication among portable computers

• Miniaturization has allowed the development of many types of portables and computerized
equipment, which have become very popular.
• Many of these portables work meaningfully when connected to some network, possibly a
LAN or the Internet. For this, the portables are typically required to be within the range of
some wireless hub.
• Satisfaction of this requirement would, however, drastically reduce the flexibility and the
mobility of the devices.
• In this case, using MANET the audience can exchange notes, and also can surf the Web if at
least one of the hand-held devices has access to Internet, for example, through a data card.
• If the mobile devices are present in sufficient density, network connections among them can
be established seamlessly to form a MANET over which the nodes can communicate and
carry out the network operations.

Environmental monitoring
• Continuous data collection from remote locations is considered important for several
applications such as environmental management, security monitoring, road traffic
monitoring and management, etc.
• Miniaturized sensors have proved to be an effective means of gathering environmental
information such as rainfall, humidity, presence of certain animals, etc.
• In this environmental monitoring application, a large number of sensors nodes are deployed
in the environment.
• MANETs efficiently handle the introduction of new sensors into an already operational
sensor network as well as can handle dynamic disconnections of nodes.
• Since each sensor acts as a hub, the range over which the sensors can be spread is
tremendously increased.
Military
• Ad hoc networking of this equipment can allow a military setup to take advantage of an
information network among the soldiers, vehicles, and military information headquarters.
• For example, an ad hoc network can be automatically set up at a battlefront among the
equipment, and the hand-held devices can collect information from and disseminate
command to the frontline personnel.
Emergency applications
• Ad hoc networks do not require any pre-existing infrastructure.
• These networks, therefore, can be deployed easily and rapidly in emergency situations such
as a search and rescue operation after a natural disaster, and for applications such as
policing and fire fighting.

Characteristics of MANET
• Dynamic Topologies:
Network topology which is typically multihop may change randomly and rapidly with time,
it can form unidirectional or bi-directional links.
• Bandwidth constrained, variable capacity links:
Wireless links usually have lower reliability, efficiency, stability, and capacity as compared
to a wired network
• Autonomous Behavior:
Each node can act as a host and router, which shows its autonomous behavior.
• Energy Constrained Operation:
As some or all the nodes rely on batteries or other exhaustible means for their energy.
Mobile nodes are characterized by less memory, power, and lightweight features.
• Limited Security:
Wireless networks are more prone to security threats. A centralized firewall is absent due to
the distributed nature of the operation for security, routing, and host configuration.
• Less Human Intervention:
They require minimum human intervention to configure the network, therefore they are
dynamically autonomous in nature.
Improvement in MANET:
1. Quality of Service (QoS): Researchers are working to improve the quality of service of
MANET by developing efficient routing protocols that provide better bandwidth,
throughput, and latency.
2. Security: To ensure the security of the MANET, researchers are developing efficient
security mechanisms that provide encryption, authentication, and authorization facilities.
3. Power management: To enhance the lifetime of MANET nodes, researchers are working
on developing efficient power management techniques that reduce the energy consumption
of nodes.
4. Multimedia support: Researchers are working to provide multimedia support to MANET
by developing efficient routing protocols that can handle multimedia traffic efficiently.
5. Standardization: To ensure the interoperability of different MANET devices, researchers
are working on developing standard protocols and interfaces that can be used by different
MANET devices.
Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET) is a wireless network made up of a collection of mobile
nodes connected wirelessly and free of any fixed infrastructure. It is self-configuring and self-
healing. MANET provides a lot of benefits, but it also has several drawbacks that need to be fixed.
Researchers are always trying to make MANET’s features better in order to get over these
constraints. Future advancements in new technology and methodologies might make MANET a
dependable and effective wireless network.

Advantages:
1. Flexibility: MANETs are highly flexible, as they can be easily deployed in various
environments and can be adapted to different applications and scenarios. This makes them
ideal for use in emergency situations or military operations, where there may not be a pre-
existing network infrastructure.
2. Scalability: MANETs can easily scale to accommodate a large number of nodes, making
them suitable for large-scale deployments. They can also handle dynamic changes in
network topology, such as the addition or removal of nodes.
3. Cost-effective: Since MANETs do not require any centralized infrastructure, they are often
more cost-effective than traditional wired or wireless networks.
Disadvantages:
1. Security: MANETs are vulnerable to security threats, such as attacks by malicious nodes,
eavesdropping, and data interception. Since the network is decentralized, there is no central
authority to ensure the security of the network.
2. Reliability: MANETs are less reliable than traditional networks, as they are subject to
interference, signal attenuation, and other environmental factors that can affect the quality
of the connection.
3. Bandwidth: Since MANETs rely on wireless communication, bandwidth can be limited.
This can lead to congestion and delays, particularly when multiple nodes are competing for
the same channel.
4. Routing: Routing in MANETs can be complex, particularly when dealing with dynamic
network topologies. This can result in inefficient routing and longer delays in data
transmission.
5. Power Consumption: Since MANETs rely on battery-powered devices, power
consumption can be a significant issue.
Multicast routing
Multicast routing is a networking method for efficient distribution of one-to-many traffic. A
multicast source, such as a live video conference, sends traffic in one stream to a multicast group.
The multicast group contains receivers such as computers, devices, and IP phones.
Common uses include these technologies:
▪ Voice over IP (VOIP)
▪ Video on demand (VOD)
▪ Video conferencing
▪ IP television (IPTV)
When you enable multicast routing on your Firebox, the Firebox acts as a local multicast router. It
forwards multicast traffic from the source to receivers on your network.

How It Works
Multicast routing uses the Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM) protocol. There are different
variants of this protocol. Your Firebox supports PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) which is used when
only a few devices subscribe to the multicast. These devices are multicast receivers. Receivers can
be located anywhere in the world, on any network, and compose the multicast group logical group.
In this diagram, a server sends multicast traffic through a router and the Firebox. The Firebox
forwards the multicast traffic to the multicast group on the local network.

In PIM-SM mode, the central point in the multicast domain is the Rendezvous Point (RP). The RP
is a router that receives multicast traffic destined for the multicast group. All multicast traffic must
pass through the RP. At least one RP candidate must exist in a multicast domain.
You must enable all Firebox interfaces as RP candidates that are involved in multicast routing,
except those exposed to the multicast source or the receivers. When you enable the Firebox as an
RP candidate, the Firebox periodically communicates its RP candidacy to the PIM-SM network.
RP elections on the Firebox occur dynamically.
Multicast traffic must have a TTL high enough to traverse all hops between the source (server) and
client.
After you enable multicast routing, the alias Any-Multicast and two new policies are added to your
configuration:
▪ MR-PIM-Allow
▪ MR-IGMP-Allow
In a multicast policy, you can specify only these options:
▪ Incoming interfaces
▪ Source IP addresses
▪ Destination IP addresses
▪ Protocols and ports
Multicast Routing Support
Multicast routing is supported only in Mixed Routing mode.
Interfaces
Multicast routing is supported for these Firebox interface types:
▪ Physical
▪ VLAN
▪ Bridge
▪ Link aggregation
 ▪ Wireless
▪ BOVPN virtual interface
You can enable multicast routing for up to 31 interfaces. IPv4 is supported. IPv6 is not supported.
Zones
Multicast routing is supported for these Firebox zones:
▪ External
▪ Trusted
▪ Optional
▪ Custom
FireCluster
You can enable multicast routing for an Active/Passive FireCluster.
Multicast Routing Protocols
The Firebox supports these multicast routing protocols:
▪ PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM)
▪ PIM Source-Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM)
▪ IGMP v2 and v3
For detailed information about multicast routing, see RFC 5110. For detailed information about
PIM-SM, see RFC 7761.
Example 1
In this example, the local network has one Firebox configured for multicast routing. The external
interface, eth0, is enabled as an RP candidate. On the router, the interface connected to the Firebox,
eth1, is enabled as an RP candidate.

TCP overWireless Networks

Traditional TCP
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol
suite, often simply referred to as TCP/IP. TCP is reliable, guarantees in-order delivery of
data and incorporates congestion control and flow control mechanisms.
 TCP uses a number of mechanisms to achieve high performance and avoid
'congestion collapse', where network performance can fall by several orders of magnitude.
These mechanisms control the rate of data entering the network, keeping the data flow below a
rate that would trigger collapse. There are several mechanisms of TCP that influence the efficiency
of TCP in a mobile environment. Acknowledgments for data sent, or lack of acknowledgments, are
used by senders to implicitly interpret network conditions between the TCP sender and
receiver.
Congestion Control
A transport layer protocol such as TCP has been designed for fixed networks with fixed
end- systems. Congestion may appear from time to time even in carefully designed networks. The
packet buffers of a router are filled and the router cannot forward the packets fast enough because
the sum of the input rates of packets destined for one output link is higher than the capacity
of the output link. The only thing a router can do in this situation is to drop packets. A dropped
packet is lost for the transmission, and the receiver notices a gap in the packet stream. Now the
receiver does not directly tell the sender which packet is missing, but continues to
acknowledge all in-sequence packets up to the missing one.

Slow start
TCP’s reaction to a missing acknowledgement is quite drastic, but it is necessary to
get rid of congestion quickly. The behaviour TCP shows after the detection of congestion is
called slow start. The sender always calculates a congestion window for a receiver. The start
size of the congestion window is one segment (TCP packet). The sender sends one packet
and waits for acknowledgement.
Fast retransmit/fast recovery
The congestion threshold can be reduced because of two reasons. First one is if the
sender receives continuous acknowledgements for the same packet. It informs the sender
that the receiver has got all the packets upto the acknowledged packet in the sequence and
also the receiver is receiving something continuously from the sender. The gap in the packet
stream is not due to congestion, but a simple packet loss due to a transmission error. The
sender can now retransmit the missing packet(s) before the timer expires. This behavior is
called fast retransmit.
TCP using fast retransmit/fast recovery interprets this congestion in the network and
activates the slow start mechanism.

Problems with Traditional TCP in wireless environments

Classical TCP Improvements
Indirect TCP (I-TCP)
Indirect TCP segments a TCP connection into a fixed part and a wireless part. The
following figure shows an example with a mobile host connected via a wireless link and an access
point to the ‘wired’ internet where the correspondent host resides.

Standard TCP is used between the fixed computer and the access point. No computer in the
internet recognizes any changes to TCP. Instead of the mobile host, the access point now
terminates the standard TCP connection, acting as a proxy. This means that the access point is now
seen as the mobile host for the fixed host and as the fixed host for the mobile host.
Between the access point and the mobile host, a special TCP, adapted to wireless links, is used.
However, changing TCP for the wireless link is not a requirement. A suitable place for
segmenting the connection is at the foreign agent as it not only controls the mobility of
the mobile host anyway and can also hand over the connection to the next foreign agent when the
mobile host moves on.
The foreign agent acts as a proxy and relays all data in both directions. If CH
(correspondent host) sends a packet to the MH, the FA acknowledges it and forwards it to the MH.
MH acknowledges on successful reception, but this is only used by the FA. If a packet is lost on
the wireless link, CH doesn’t observe it and FA tries to retransmit it locally to maintain
reliable data transport. If the MH sends a packet, the FA acknowledges it and forwards it to CH. If
the packet is lost on the wireless link, the mobile hosts notice this much faster due to the
lower round trip time and can directly retransmit the packet. Packet loss in the wired network is
now handled by the foreign agent.
 During handover, the buffered packets, as well as the system state (packet sequence
number, acknowledgements, ports, etc), must migrate to the new agent. No new connection
may be established for the mobile host, and the correspondent host must not see any
changes in connection state. Packet delivery in I-TCP is shown below:

Advantages of I-TCP
• No changes in the fixed network necessary, no changes for the hosts (TCP protocol)
• Simple to control, mobile TCP is used only for one hop between, e.g., a foreign agent and
mobile host.
a. transmission errors on the wireless link do not propagate into the fixed network
b. therefore, a very fast retransmission of packets is possible, the short delay on the
mobile hops
• It is easy to use different protocols for wired and wireless networks.
Disadvantages of I-TCP
• Higher latency possible:- due to buffering of data within the foreign agent and forwarding
to a new FA.
• Loss of end-to-end semantics:- an acknowledgement to a sender no longer means that a
receiver really as receviered the packets, Otherwise FA might crash.
• Security issue:- The foreign agent must be a trusted entity.

Snooping TCP
The main drawback of I-TCP is the segmentation of the single TCP connection into
two TCP connections, which loses the original end-to-end TCP semantic. A new
enhancement, which leaves the TCP connection intact and is completely transparent, is
Snooping TCP. The main function is to buffer data close to the mobile host to perform fast local
retransmission in case of packet loss.
Here, the foreign agent buffers all packets with destination mobile host and additionally
‘snoops’ the packet flow in both directions to recognize acknowledgements. The foreign
agent buffers every packet until it receives an acknowledgement from the mobile host. If the FA
does not receive an acknowledgement from the mobile host within a certain amount of time,
either the packet or the acknowledgement has been lost. Alternatively, the foreign agent
could receive a duplicate ACK which also shows the loss of a packet. Now, the FA
retransmits the packet directly from the buffer thus performing a faster retransmission
compared to the CH. For transparency, the FA does not acknowledge data to the CH,
which would violate end-to-end semantic in case of a FA failure. The foreign agent can
filter the duplicate acknowledgements to avoid unnecessary retransmissions of data from the
correspondent host. If the foreign agent now crashes, the time-out of the correspondent host still
works and triggers a retransmission. The foreign agent may discard duplicates of packets
already retransmitted locally and acknowledged by the mobile host. This avoids unnecessary
traffic on the wireless link.
For data transfer from the mobile host with destination correspondent host, the FA
snoops into the packet stream to detect gaps in the sequence numbers of TCP. As soon as the
foreign agent detects a missing packet, it returns a negative acknowledgement (NACK) to
the mobile host. The mobile host can now retransmit the missing packet immediately. Reordering
of packets is done automatically at the correspondent host by TCP.
Advantages of snooping TCP:
• The end-to-end TCP semantic is preserved.
• Most of the enhancements are done in the foreign agent itself which keeps correspondent
host unchanged.
• Handover of state is not required as soon as the mobile host moves to another
foreign agent. Even though packets are present in the buffer, time out at the CH
occurs and the packets are transmitted to the new COA.
• No problem arises if the new foreign agent uses the enhancement or not. If not, the
approach automatically.
Disadvantages of snooping TCP
• Snooping TCP does not isolate the behavior of the wireless link as well as I-TCP.
• Using negative acknowledgements between the foreign agent and the mobile host assumes
additional mechanisms on the mobile host. This approach is no longer transparent
for arbitrary mobile hosts.
• Snooping and buffering data may be useless if certain encryption schemes are applied end-
o-end between the correspondent host and mobile host. If encryption is used above
the transport layer, (eg. SSL/TLS), snooping TCP can be used.
Mobile TCP
Both I-TCP and Snooping TCP does not help much, if a mobile host gets
disconnected. The M-TCP (mobile TCP) approach has the same goals as I-TCP and snooping TCP:
to prevent the sender window from shrinking if bit errors or disconnection but not
congestion cause current problems. M-TCP wants to improve overall throughput, to lower the
delay, to maintain end-to-end semantics of TCP, and to provide a more efficient handover.
Additionally, M-TCP is especially adapted to the problems arising from lengthy or frequent
disconnections. M-TCP splits the TCP connection into two parts as I-TCP does. An
unmodified TCP is used on the standard host-supervisory host (SH) connection, while an
optimized TCP is used on the SH-MH connection.
he SH monitors all packets sent to the MH and ACKs returned from the MH. If the SH does
not receive an ACK for some time, it assumes that the MH is disconnected. It then chokes the
sender by setting the sender’s window size to 0. Setting the window size to 0 forces the
sender to go into persistent mode, i.e., the state of the sender will not change no matter how long
the receiver is disconnected. This means that the sender will not try to retransmit data. As soon as
the SH (either the old SH or a new SH) detects connectivity again, it reopens the window
of the sender to the old value. The sender can continue sending at full speed. This
mechanism does not require changes to the sender’s TCP. The wireless side uses an adapted TCP
that can recover from packet loss much faster. This modified TCP does not use slow start, thus, M-
TCP needs a bandwidth manager to implement fair sharing over the wireless link.

Advantages of M-TCP:
• It maintains the TCP end-to-end semantics. The SH does not send any ACK itself but
forward ACKs from the MH.
• If the MH is disconnected, it avoids useless retransmissions, slow starts or breaking
connections is simply shrinking window’s to 0.
 • As no buffering is done as in I-TCP, there is no need to forward buffers to a new SH. Lost
the packets will be automatically transmit to SH.
Disadvantages of M-TCP:
• As the SH does not act as proxy as in I-TCP, packet loss on the wireless link due to bit
errors is propagated to the sender. M-TCP assumes low bit error rates, which is not always a
valid assumption.
• A modified TCP on the wireless link not only requires modifications to the MH protocol
software but also new network elements like the bandwidth manager.
Transmission/time-out freezing
Often, MAC layer notices connection problems even before the connection is
actually interrupted from a TCP point of view and also knows the real reason for the interruption.
The MAC layer can inform the TCP layer of an upcoming loss of connection or that the
current interruption is not caused by congestion. TCP can now stop sending and ‘freezes’
the current state of its congestion window and further timers. If the MAC layer notices the
upcoming interruption early enough, both the mobile and correspondent host can be
informed. With a fast interruption of the wireless link, additional mechanisms in the access point
are needed to inform the correspondent host of the reason for interruption. Otherwise, the
correspondent host goes into slow start assuming congestion and finally breaks the connection.
As soon as the MAC layer detects connectivity again, it signals TCP that it can
resume operation at exactly the same point where it had been forced to stop. For TCP time simply
does not advance, so no timers expire.
Advantages:
• It offers a way to resume TCP connections even after long interruptions of the connection.
• It can be used together with encrypted data as it is independent of other TCP mechanisms
such as sequence no or acknowledged gements.
Disadvantages:
• Lots of changes have to be made in software of MH, CH and FA.
Selective retransmission
A very useful extension of TCP is the use of selective retransmission. TCP
acknowledgements are cumulative, i.e., they acknowledge in-order receipt of packets up to a
certain packet. A single acknowledgement confirms reception of all packets upto a certain
packet. If a single packet is lost, the sender has to retransmit everything starting from the lost
packet (go-back-n retransmission). This obviously wastes bandwidth, not just in the case of a
mobile network, but for any network.
Using selective retransmission, TCP can indirectly request a selective retransmission of
packets. The receiver can acknowledge single packets, not only trains of in-sequence
packets. The sender can now determine precisely which packet is needed and can retransmit
it.
Advantage
• A sender retransmits only the lost packets. This lowers bandwidth requirements and is
extremely helpful in slow wireless links.
Disadvantage
• Its that a more complex software on the receiver side is needed. Also more buffer space is
needed to resequence data and to wait for gaps to be filled.
Transaction-oriented TCP
Assume an application running on the mobile host that sends a short request to a server
from time to time, which responds with a short message and it requires reliable TCP transport of
the packets. For it to use normal TCP, it is inefficient because of the overhead involved.
Standard TCP is made up of three phases: setup, data transfer and release. First, TCP uses a
three-way handshake to establish the connection. At least one additional packet is usually needed
for transmission of the request, and requires three more packets to close the connection via a
three-way handshake. So, for sending one data packet, TCP may need seven packets
altogether. This kind of overhead is acceptable for long sessions in fixed networks, but is
quite inefficient for short messages or sessions in wireless networks. This led to the
development of transaction-oriented TCP (T/TCP).

T/TCP can combine packets for connection establishment and connection release with user
data packets. This can reduce the number of packets down to two instead of seven. The
obvious advantage for certain applications is the reduction in the overhead which standard
TCP has for connection setup and connection release. Disadvantage is that it requires changes in
the software in mobile host and all correspondent hosts. This solution does not hide mobility
anymore. Also, T/TCP exhibits several security problems.
Classical Enhancements to TCP for mobility: A comparison