Manage IPv6 Mobility

TOC | Test and debug IPv6 Mobility

1.  Start and stop

The Live CD mobility support is based on MIPL (Mobile IPv6 for Linux) implementation with some enhancements from the Nautilus6 project. The mobility feature is not started at boot time and you will need to start it manually.

After booting up your PC with the Live CD, you will see an application named 'Mobility Management' on the desktop. This small program controls the IPv6 mobility for your computer. It works for both Mobile Hosts and Mobile Routers.

MIPv6 Management icon

With this application, you can do the following operations:

1. Start or stop the IPv6 mobility. Quagga and RAdvd are also handled in addition to mip6d in case of a Mobile Router.
2. Reload or restart mip6d mobility daemon.
3. Edit the configuration file of mip6d mobility daemon. Usually users do not need to edit the configuration file.

You can also start and stop the mobility daemon via the command line:

 # /etc/init.d/mip6d {start | stop | reload | restart}

2.  Configure mobility daemon

If you need to change the daemon configuration on run time, the mip6mgt program (described in the previous section) provides the interface. Note that you cannot preserve the edited information because the file system is burned on the CD-ROM and it is not modifiable.

The configuration file, located in /etc/mip6d.conf, contains basic information of the mobile node running with the Live CD you are using. The meaning of each parameters are as follows.

NodeConfig

Specify the type of the node. Either one of MN (Mobile Node), HA (Home Agent), CN (Correspondent Node) can be specified. Users should leave this value to MN.

DebugLevel

Indicates the debug level of the daemon. The larger number generates more debug information. If the value is greater than zero, the daemon will not detach from tty (i.e. debug messages will be printed on the controlling tty). This option is disabled by the use of launch scripts present on this CD so you need to run the daemon by hand if you want logs.

DoRouteOptimizationCN

Indicates if a node should participate in route optimization with a Mobile Node.

DoRouteOptimizationMN

Indicates if the Mobile Node should initialize route optimization with Correspondent Nodes.

UseCnBuAck

Indicates if the Acknowledge bit should be set in Binding Updates sent to Correspondent Nodes.

MnDiscardHaParamProb

Toggles if the Mobile Node should discard ICMPv6 Parameter Problem messages from its Home Agent. As the ICMPv6 error messages won't normally be protected by IPsec, a malicious third party can quite easily impersonate the HA to the MN. Having the MN accept these messages therefore leaves it open to Denial of Service attacks, even though its home registration signaling is protected by IPsec.

MnMaxHaBindingLife

Limits the maximum lifetime (in seconds) for Mobile Node home registrations.

MnRouterProbes

Indicates how many times the MN should send Neighbor Unreachability Detection probes to its old router after receiving a Router Advertisement from a new one. If the option is set to zero, the MN will move to the new router straight away.Specify if router probing technique is used to detect movement.

MnHomeLink

Specify the home network information of the MN. HomeAgentAddress represents the IPv6 address of the Mobile Node's Home Agent. DHAAD is used if it is the unspecified address (::).

UseMnHaIPsec

Indicates if the MN-HA MIPv6 signalling should be protected with IPsec. Users should leave this value to enabled.

KeyMngMobCapability

If dynamic keying with MIPv6-aware IKE is used, this options should be enabled. It turns on the K-bit for binding updates and binding acknowledgments.

IPsecPolicySet

Specify the node addresses and IPsec key values to protect signaling messages. Users should leave this value to disabled.

Interface

Specify the preferable interface name of the MN. MnIfPreference sets the interface preference value for an interface in a multi-homed Mobile Node. The most preferred interfaces have preference 1, the second most preferred have 2, etc. A preference of zero means the interface will not be used.

For a more complete information about the configuration of the MIPL daemon, refer to the the mip6d.conf (5) man page. For instance, type the following in a console:

 $ man mip6d.conf

TOC | Test and debug IPv6 Mobility