An ILNP-based solution for future heterogeneous wireless networks

Utilization of the different wireless interfaces (Cellular, Wi-Fi and WiMAX) that come with many of the Mobile Nodes today is central to improving Quality of Experience and Quality of Service in future networks. Although the interfaces are of different technologies as are the access links, the core/backbone networks are now based on IP infrastructure. Efforts to simplify network handover between these technologies – termed vertical handover (VHO) – have not been successful with IP due its mechanism for managing nodes’ identity and location. Researchers have defined and implemented some solutions that proposed the separation of identity of a Mobile Node from its location, and among those proposals is the Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP). In this work, we propose a Linux-based implementation of the ILNPv6 protocol – an instance of the ILNP that is compatible with IPv6 – on laboratory testbed. We also proposed an Information Server managing a defined geographical location we called AREA, to augment some of the shortfalls that we observed with ILNP. We believe that this combination provides the necessary ground for achieving seamless VHO in heterogeneous wireless environments of the future

IP without IP addresses

D. Phoomikiattisak was funded by the Thai Government. B. Simpson was funded by Cisco Systems under a University Research Programme (URP) grant award.We discuss a key engineering challenge in implementing the Identifier- Locator Network Protocol (ILNP), as described in IRTF Experimental RFCs 6740-6748: enabling legacy applications that use the C sockets API. We have built the first two OS kernel implementations of ILNPv6 (ILNP as a superset of IPv6), in both the Linux OS kernel and the FreeBSD OS kernel. Our evaluation is in comparison with IPv6, in the context of a topical and challenging scenario: host mobility implemented as a purely end-to-end function. Our experiments show that ILNPv6 has excellent potential for deployment using existing IPv6 infrastructure, whilst offering the new properties and functionality of ILNP.Postprin

Mobility as a first class function

Seamless host mobility has been a desirable feature for a long time, but was not part of the original design of the Internet architecture or protocols. Current approaches to network-layer mobility typically require additional network-layer entities for mobility management, which add complexity to the current engineering landscape of the Internet. We present a host-based, end-to-end architecture for host mobility using the Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP). ILNP provides mobility support as a first class function, since mobility management is controlled and managed by the end-systems, and does not require additional network-layer entities. We demonstrate an instance of ILNP that is a superset of IPv6 – called ILNPv6 – that is implemented by extending the current IPv6 code in the Linux kernel. We make a direct comparison of performance of ILNPv6 and Mobile IPv6, showing the improved performance of ILNPv6.Postprin

Control plane handoff analysis for IP mobility

Seamless host mobility is vital to future network mobility, and has been an active research area for a long time. Much research focuses on the performance of the data plane. In this paper, we present comprehensive analyses on the control (signalling) plane in the IETF Mobile IPv6, and compare it with the IRTF Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP). The control plane behaviour is important in order to assess the robustness and scalability of the mobility protocol. ILNP has a different mobility model from Mobile IPv6: it isa host-based, end-to-end architecture and does not require additional network-layer entities. Hence, the control signals are exchanged only between the end systems. We provide model-based analyses for handoff signalling, and show that ILNP is more efficient than MIPv6 in terms of robustness and scalability. The analytical models we present could also be adapted for other mobility solutions, for comparative assessment.Postprin

End-to-end mobility for the internet using ILNP

This work was partially funded by the Government of Thailand through a PhD scholarship for Dr Phoomikiattisak.As the use of mobile devices and methods of wireless connectivity continue to increase, seamless mobility becomes more desirable and important. The current IETF Mobile IP standard relies on additional network entities for mobility management, can have poor performance, and has seen little deployment in real networks. We present a host-based mobility solution with a true end-to-end architecture using the Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP). We show how the TCP code in the Linux kernel can be extended allowing legacy TCP applications that use the standard C sockets API to operate over ILNP without requiring changes or recompilation. Our direct testbed performance comparison shows that ILNP provides better host mobility support than Mobile IPv6 in terms of session continuity, packet loss, and handoff delay for TCP.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Seamless Internet connectivity for ubiquitous communication

The direct and flexible use of any network connectivity that is available within an urban scenario is essential for the successful operation of ubiquitous systems. We demonstrate seamless communication across different networks without the use of middleware, proxies, tunnels, or address translation, with minimal (near-zero) packet loss to communication flows as handoff occurs between networks. Our solution does not require any new functions in existing networks, will work on existing infrastructure, and does not require applications to be re-designed or re-engineered. Our solution requires only modifications to the end-systems involved in communication, so can be deployed incrementally only for those end-systems that require the functionality. We describe our approach and its design, based on the use of the Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP), which can be realised directly on IPv6. We demonstrate the efficacy of our solution with testbed experiments based on modifications to the Linux kernel v4.9 LTS, operating directly over IPv6, and using unmodified binary applications utilising directly the standard socket(2) POSIX.1-2008 API, and standard C library calls. As our approach is 'end-to-end', we also describe how to maintain packet-level secrecy and identity privacy for the communication flow as part of our approach.Postprin

Defence against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks using Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP) and Domain Name System (DNS)

This research considered a novel approach to network security by combining a new networking architecture based on the Identifier-Locator Network Protocol (ILNP) and the existing Domain Name System (DNS). Specifically, the investigations considered the mitigation of network-level and transport-level based Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. The solutions presented for DoS are applicable to secure servers that are visible externally from an enterprise network. DoS was chosen as an area of concern because in recent years DoS has become the most common and hard to defend against attacks. The novelty of this approach was to consider the way the DNS and ILNP can work together, transparently to the application, within an enterprise scenario. This was achieved by the introduction of a new application-level access control function - the Capability Management System (CMS) - which applies configuration at the application level (DNS data) and network level (ILNP namespaces). CMS provides dynamic, ephemeral identity and location information to clients and servers, in order to effectively partition legitimate traffic from attack traffic. This was achieved without modifying existing network components such as switches and routers and making standard use of existing functions, such as access control lists, and DNS servers, all within a single trust domain that is under the control of the enterprise. The prime objectives of this research were: • to defend against DoS attacks with the use of naming and DNS within an enterprise scenario. • to increase the attacker’s effort in launching a successful DoS attack. • to reduce the visibility of vulnerabilities that can be discovered by an attacker by active probing approaches. • to practically demonstrate the effectiveness of ILNP and DNS working together to provide a solution for DoS mitigation. The solution methodology is based on the use of network and transport level capabilities, dynamic changes to DNS data, and a Moving Target Defence (MTD) paradigm. There are three solutions presented which use ILNP namespaces. These solutions are referred to as identifier-based, locator-based, and combined identifier-locator based solutions, respectively. ILNP-based node identity values were used to provide transport-level per-client server capabilities, thereby providing per-client isolation of traffic. ILNP locator values were used to allow a provision of network-level traffic separation for externally accessible enterprise services. Then, the identifier and locator solutions were combined, showing the possibility of protecting the services, with per-client traffic control and topological traffic path separation. All solutions were site-based solutions and did not require any modification in the core/external network, or the active cooperation of an ISP, therefore limiting the trust domain to the enterprise itself. Experiments were conducted to evaluate all the solutions on a test-bed consisting of off-the-shelf hardware, open-source software, an implementation of the CMS written in C, all running on Linux. The discussion includes considering the efficacy of the solutions, comparisons with existing methods, the performance of each solution, and critical analysis highlighting future improvements that could be made

Multihoming with ILNP in FreeBSD

Multihoming allows nodes to be multiply connected to the network. It forms the basis of features which can improve network responsiveness and robustness; e.g. load balancing and fail-over, which can be considered as a choice between network locations. However, IP today assumes that IP addresses specify both network location and node identity. Therefore, these features must be implemented at routers. This dissertation considers an alternative based on the multihoming approach of the Identifier Locator Network Protocol (ILNP). ILNP is one of many proposals for a split between network location and node identity. However, unlike other proposals, ILNP removes the use of IP addresses as they are used today. To date, ILNP has not been implemented within an operating system stack. I produce the first implementation of ILNP in FreeBSD, based on a superset of IPv6 – ILNPv6 – and demonstrate a key feature of ILNP: multihoming as a first class function of the operating system, rather than being implemented as a routing function as it is today. To evaluate the multihoming capability, I demonstrate one important application of multihoming – load distribution – at three levels of network hierarchy including individual hosts, a singleton Site Border Router (SBR), and a novel, dynamically instantiated, distributed SBR (dSBR). For each level, I present empirical results from a hardware testbed; metrics include latency, throughput, loss and reordering. I compare performance with unmodified IPv6 and NPTv6. Finally, I evaluate the feasibility of dSBR-ILNPv6 as an alternative to existing multihoming approaches, based on measurements of the dSBR’s responsiveness to changes in site connectivity. We find that multihoming can be implemented by individual hosts and/or SBRs, without requiring additional routing state as is the case today, and without any significant additional load or overhead compared to unicast IPv6