What Does Mobile IP Mean?
Mobile IP communication protocol refers to the forwarding of Internet traffic with a fixed IP address even outside the home network. It allows users having wireless or mobile devices to use the Internet remotely.
Techopedia Explains Mobile IP
A simple analogy to understand the concept is a person who has left vacation and set his a forwarding address for his mail.
When a mobile terminal enters a visited area, it requires the services of a foreign agent. The foreign agent provides registration and packet-forwarding services to the visiting terminals. Each mobile IP host uses one permanent IP address (home address) and one temporary address (care-of address) if away from the home network. Thus, the IP packet exchange consists of three mechanisms:
- Discovering the care-of address.
- Registering the care-of address with the home agent.
- The home agent redirecting the received datagrams to the foreign network using care-of address.
Care-of IP addresses are temporary IP addresses are given by the network outside the home network so devices can stay connected while on the move. The device gets a new care-of address if the user moves to another network.
