Dynamic Internetworking Based on Late Locator Construction

Abstract

The legacy Internet technology is optimized for a semi-static inter-domain topology. Mobility or multihoming is handled by extending the legacy technology with new protocols. This paper describes a novel internetworking architecture with native support for a highly dynamic edge topology. The architecture distinguishes between a rather static core network on the one hand, and on the other hand edge networks forming an edge topology that may change on a short timescale due to mobility or re-homing events. The source host addresses the destination host directly with a hierarchically structured global locator. Indirection via a mobility agent is thus not needed. The name to locator resolution is based on a novel mechanism that constructs a global host locator on-demand that describes the current internetwork path from the core network to the host (late locator construction). This enables the resolution of the host name into a hierarchical and topologically significant host locator also with a highly dynamic edge topology where the path to the destination host traverses several moving and multihomed networks. The same locator construction mechanism is used to handle both node and network mobility as well as multihoming. Simulation results that verify the basic functionality of the late locator construction approach are reported.