Mobile IP

Integrating Mobile IP and Ad hoc Networking

The future of communications converges towards IP (Internet Protocol). At the moment, an IP address is assigned to one terminal at a fixed location. The research & development labs and the industry are moving to fully make use of the already present IP protocol. Due to the current success of the mobile phone, the mobile phones of the future will be in essence a portable internet enable devices, thus to be connected to the internet, a new protocol named Mobile IP will be employed. Another future trend is the Ad hoc networking whereby several wireless terminals set up a network amongst one-another without the need for an access point. They are therefore infrastructure less. Powerful routing protocols are required here in order to route packets to their destination set from their source, due to the high dynamic and mobile nature of the Ad hoc network.

Integrating the two technologies is therefore inevitable (see figure above). This feature would allow Internet enabled devices within an Ad-hoc to access the Internet indirectly via other presently internet-connected nodes.