Martin Dunmore

A scenario-based review of IPv6 transition tools

Momentum for IPv6 transition is on the rise, and many transition tools and techniques are available to ISPs, enterprise networks, and unmanaged networks. From a transitioning perspective, the ISP environment is interesting because the operators migration approaches will define, quite strictly, the extent of IPv6 services that their customers receive. As such, the ISPs (scalable) migration decisions have direct knock-on effects for customers. In the future, customers might require ISPs to offer value-added lPv6 services that not only have performance-based restrictions, but security and mobility considerations, as well.

Using NEMO to Support the Global Reachability of MANET Nodes

Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing protocols have been the focus of an accomplished research effort for many years within the networking community and now the results of this effort are beginning to show. With protocol development maturing (and now typically concentrating on a smaller number of standardised routing protocols), increasing numbers of deployment successes are materialising. However, despite these successes and the relative stability of the protocol implementations, seamlessly incorporating MANETs into the Internet still presents many challenges that have hindered their deployment in important mobile scenarios. In this paper we discuss the inherent properties that have affected the adoption of MANET solutions and present an innovative new protocol which has been designed to comprehensively address these challenges. Using performance results acquired from our experimental testbed, we demonstrate how our approach can be used to produce MANET solutions that are highly suited to use in synergy with the current Internet architecture. Our protocol is based on the concept of integrating MANET routing protocols with network mobility (NEMO) technologies to produce what is termed a MANEMO solution. This has meant that by utilising the properties of both of these technologies we have been able to realise a solution that provides mobile networks with the efficient localised communication and robustness of MANETs, as well as the global reachability and the ability to provide structured AAA that a NEMO approach can support.

Advances in MANEMO: Definition of the Problem Domain and the Design of a NEMO-Centric Approach

The integration of MANET and NEMO technologies to produce what are commonly termed MANEMO solutions is a burgeoning concept that has the possibility to provide IP connectivity across many diverse problem areas. However, even in research terms MANEMO is in a very early stage of development and consequently no standardised understanding of what MANEMO specifically refers to has yet been decided upon. In this paper we introduce the MANEMO concept as a whole and identify what we believe to be the two main solution areas contained in the MANEMO problem domain, namely NEMO-centric MANEMO (NCM) and MANET-centric MANEMO (MCM). In addition to defining these two instances of MANEMO we also highlight the design decisions and implementation considerations that are encountered when developing an NCM protocol through the introduction of our NCM protocol implementation that we are currently producing at Lancaster University

Applying NEMO to a mountain rescue domain

In an effort to provide a solution to the problem of internetworking mountain rescue workers without the use of a fixed infrastructure, our group has explored the use of a network model based on the concept of Network Mobility and the use of the NEMO Basic Support Protocol In this paper we consider the feasibility of this approach through the design, configuration and testing of a working example of this scenario using an implementation of the NEMO Basic Support Protocol made available to us by Cisco Systems (running on their 3200 Series Mobile Access Router platform) We provide the results from performance testing carried out over our testbed that highlights the real impact of the scalability problems of the NEMO Basic Support Protocol in a scenario which results in a nested NEMO topology In addition we present results that illustrate the performance improvements achievable in our scenario through using the NEMO Route Optimisation (RO) solution, Reverse Routing Header (RRH).

Using NEMO to Extend the Functionality of MANETs

Network mobility is an established topic of research which has the potential capability to support many valuable scenarios. Specifically, the ability to support the mobility of entire networks of IP enabled devices that are oblivious to the changing network conditions beneath them is particularly useful to numerous scenarios such as vehicle based networks and personal area networks (PAN). In this paper, we present an efficient and scalable approach that allows mobile networks to intercommunicate and be reachable via the Internet both directly (via their own Internet connection) and indirectly (via another mobile network with an Internet connection). The implemented approach is based on the concept of combining the beneficial features of mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET) protocols and the network mobility basic support (NEMO BS) protocol to develop what is known as a MANEMO solution. In the paper we highlight the key performance characteristics of our protocol through analysis of our implementation in a testbed environment.

Network transparency in a mountain rescue domain

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss network transparency in a mountain rescue domain and aims to introduce the relatively new research concept of MANEMO (MANET + NEMO) and the mountain rescue IP network model developed at Lancaster University.Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of IP mobility techniques that have been designed for use in the Internet today is provided as background, as well as an overview of the whole MANEMO domain. Highlights the importance of the MANEMO concept by working with real scenarios and developing practical implementations (as opposed to simulation).Findings – During the research it was found that combining the localised multi‐hop behaviour of MANET techniques and the global reachability of NEMO can be a mutually beneficial process. The benefits afforded by using MANET techniques can bring advantages to NEMO scenarios and vice‐versa. Identifying this fact has given rise to the development of two distinct MANEMO scenarios, MANET‐Centric and NEMO‐Centric MANEMO. Finally, t...

Next generation network management of heterogeneous mobile users

At present, none of the known mobility management proposals can efficiently support mobile wireless users in the Next Generation Network (NGN) because this environment will have both heterogeneous access technologies belonging to diverse network providers, and users using services with different network requirements. We aim to use Game Theory (GT) to understand how to fulfil the expectations of both users and network providers in a way that the NGN will work efficiently. In this work, we propose a game between the network operator and the users to evaluate how each users decision impacts on the operator reward, and vice-versa. In addition, we investigate how both players can maximize their rewards or utilities, noticing they have conflicting expectations. Then, we analyse distinct network usage scenarios: no user mobility, mobility detected by both operator and user, distinct user classes and various network loads. Our results show that our mobility model with heterogeneous users has a Nash Equilibrium (NE) but it depends on the network load, who triggers the handover and the handover management approach being used. In our opinion, these results give some guidelines as to how the NGN mobility should be supported.