Description
We propose the Robust Overlay Architecture for Mobility (ROAM) to provide seamless mobility for Internet hosts. This architecture uses an indirection infrastructure that provides a rendezvous communication abstraction: instead of explicitly sending packets to a destination address, packets are sent to an identifier. A receiver who wishes to receive those packets uses the indirection infrastructure to associate its address with the identifier.
ROAM allows end-hosts to avoid the inefficiency of triangle routing by choosing nearby indirection points, and it is as robust as the underlying IP network to node failure. In addition, it preserves location privacy and allows end hosts to move simultaneously. We have developed a user-level prototype system on Linux that provides transparent mobility without modifying applications or the TCP/IP protocol stack. We also present both simulation and experimental results.