Introducing mobile home agents into the distributed authentication protocol to achieve location privacy in mobile IPv6

Mobile IPv6 will be the basis for the fourth generation 4G networks which will completely revolutionize the way telecommunication devices operate. This paradigm shift will occur due to the sole use of packed switching networks. Mobile IPv6 utilizes binding updates as a route optimization to reduced triangle routing between the mobile node, the home agent and the correspondent node, allowing direct communication between the mobile node and the correspondent. However, direct communication between the nodes produces a range of security vulnerabilities, which the home agent avoided. This paper attempts to provide the advantages of using the home agent as an intermediary whilst reducing the latency of triangle routing. This can be achieved with the proposed use of a mobile home agent which essentially follows the mobile node as it moves between points of attachment providing location privacy and pseudo-direct communication, which can be incorporated into the distributed authentication protocol or be used as a stand alone solution.