Topologically-Aware AAA Overlay Network in Mobile IPv6 Environment

In mobile IPv6 network, AAA mechanism is necessary for administration and security because roaming nodes are permitted and become majority. However, disharmonies are exposed when MIPv6 meets AAA. On one hand, AAA procedures increase the latency of MIPv6 handover by inserting several message round trips before mobile registration. Thus the handover performance is reduced. On the other hand, AAA does nothing to help MIPv6 with its security problem. The fact is that MIPv6 has to struggle with those problems by itself. The result is that MIPv6 become complicated and inefficient. The crux of the matter is that AAA and MIPv6 are separately designed from their own viewpoints without mutual reinforcement. In this study, a Topologically-Aware AAA Overlay Network (TA

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ON) is used for compatibly combining together resources and capacities from both sides. All connected AAA participators construct an overlay network which is naturally topology-aware. MIPv6 security issues, for example key generating and peer identifying, are handled by AAA. Secret materials and even MIPv6 signals can be delivered through TA

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ON. As shown in this paper, at little additional cost all things serve their proper purposes and finally performance and security of MIPv6 are improved.