Chapter5.Campus Mobility: Client-Based Mobile IP

Chapter 5. Campus Mobility: Client-Based Mobile IP

This chapter builds on fundamentals explored in the lab environment in the previous chapter to build a reliable campus mobility solution. Adding mobility to a campus network can provide significant productivity benefits. One of the biggest benefits is improved user experience, especially for multimedia applications like desktop video conferencing and screen sharing. Users can go from the fast fixed Ethernet on their desktop to wireless LAN (WLAN) in the conference room without interrupting their work. Not only does this improve the user experience, but it also improves WLAN performance by keeping traffic on the fixed network when it is available. Mobile IP also enables a range of hand-held applications, such as personal digital assistant (PDA)-based voice and on-campus delivery tracking and security.

The chapter begins by characterizing the campus mobility model and then delves into features designed to simplify and enhance Mobile IP deployments in such environments. Specifically, the chapter looks closely at various options for security key management, Home Agent redundancy for high availability, and quality of service (QoS) integration. Keep in mind that the book introduces features in a progressive manner, and thus, the features addressed in this chapter can be used in Mobile IP environments discussed in later chapters.