Enabling Route Optimization for Large Networks with Location Privacy Consideration

Mobile IP [9] was introduced to help the mobile user to be contacted with a single IP address even though the point-of-access changes. However, mobile IP creates the so-called 'triangle routing' which makes the delays for data packets longer, as well as creating unnecessary traffic at the home network of the mobile user. To overcome this, Route Optimization (RO) for mobile IP [1] was proposed, which eliminated the triangle routing phenomenon. But [l] requires that the network protocol stack of all existing hosts to change. Privacy is also another matter to be considered. This paper introduces a scheme called Peer Agent scheme to implement RO for mobile IP without requiring existing hosts to change. Method to preserve location privacy while still enabling RO is also considered.