An exercise in formal reasoning about mobile communications

Abstract

With recent advances in wireless communication and the ubiquity of laptops, mobile computing has become an important research area. An essential problem in mobile computing is the delivery of a message from a source (stationary or mobile) to a desired mobile unit. Standard solutions used in Mobile IP and cellular phones rely on tracking the mobile unit. Tracking solutions scale badly when mobile units move frequently. Our paper proposes a new message delivery algorithm and includes a proof outline using the UNITY logic. Our algorithm requires no tracking and provides stronger guarantees than existing protocols.