Host migration transparency in IP networks

Abstract

Increasing portability of computers will require users in the future to access the network regardless of location. Host migration transparency will be an essential feature of wide area network environments. We proposed the concept of virtual network and the propagating cache method to achieve host migration transparency [12]. We also established the feasibility of Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP), derived from Internet Protocol (IP), as an example of a virtual network protocol. In this paper, we define VIP in detail and describe how VIP achieves host migration transparency in IP networks. We also show two VIP implementation approaches: 1) VIP as a sublayer; and 2) VIP as an IP option. By modifying an operating systems kernel in each case, we implement VIP using both approaches. We then compare both implementations in terms of overhead, backward compatibility, and other metrics. The measured performance indicates that VIP can provide host migration transparency in IP networks with negligible overhead.