Kent Leung and Dan Shell

Cisco Systems, San Jose, California

William D. Ivancic

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

David H. Stewart

Verizon, Cleveland, Ohio

Terry L. Bell

Lockheed Martin, Cleveland, Ohio

Brian A. Kachmar

Analex Corporation, Brook Park, Ohio

Application of Mobile-ip to Space and

Aeronautical Networks

NASA/TM—2001-210590

February 2001
The NASA STI Program Office . . . in Profile

Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to

the advancement of aeronautics and space

science. The NASA Scientific and Technical

Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part

in helping NASA maintain this important role.

The NASA STI Program Office is operated by

Langley Research Center, the Lead Center for

NASA’s scientific and technical information. The

NASA STI Program Office provides access to the

NASA STI Database, the largest collection of

aeronautical and space science STI in the world.

The Program Office is also NASA’s institutional

mechanism for disseminating the results of its

research and development activities. These results

are published by NASA in the NASA STI Report

Series, which includes the following report types:

• TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. Reports of

completed research or a major significant

phase of research that present the results of

NASA programs and include extensive data

or theoretical analysis. Includes compilations

of significant scientific and technical data and

information deemed to be of continuing

reference value. NASA’s counterpart of peerreviewed formal professional papers but

has less stringent limitations on manuscript

length and extent of graphic presentations.

• TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM. Scientific

and technical findings that are preliminary or

of specialized interest, e.g., quick release

reports, working papers, and bibliographies

that contain minimal annotation. Does not

contain extensive analysis.

• CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific and

technical findings by NASA-sponsored

contractors and grantees.

• CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. Collected

papers from scientific and technical

conferences, symposia, seminars, or other

meetings sponsored or cosponsored by

NASA.

• SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific,

technical, or historical information from

NASA programs, projects, and missions,

often concerned with subjects having

substantial public interest.

• TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. Englishlanguage translations of foreign scientific

and technical material pertinent to NASA’s

mission.

Specialized services that complement the STI

Program Office’s diverse offerings include

creating custom thesauri, building customized

data bases, organizing and publishing research

results . . . even providing videos.

For more information about the NASA STI

Program Office, see the following:

• Access the NASA STI Program Home Page

at http://www.sti.nasa.gov

• E-mail your question via the Internet to

help@sti.nasa.gov

• Fax your question to the NASA Access

Help Desk at 301–621–0134

• Telephone the NASA Access Help Desk at

301–621–0390

• Write to:

 NASA Access Help Desk

 NASA Center for AeroSpace Information

 7121 Standard Drive

 Hanover, MD 21076
February 2001

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

Prepared for the

2001 Aerospace Conference

sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Big Sky, Montana, March 10–17, 2001

Kent Leung and Dan Shell

Cisco Systems, San Jose, California

William D. Ivancic

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

David H. Stewart

Verizon, Cleveland, Ohio

Terry L. Bell

Lockheed Martin, Cleveland, Ohio

Brian A. Kachmar

Analex Corporation, Brook Park, Ohio

Application of Mobile-ip to Space and

Aeronautical Networks

NASA/TM—2001-210590
Available from

NASA Center for Aerospace Information

7121 Standard Drive

Hanover, MD 21076

Price Code: A03

National Technical Information Service

5285 Port Royal Road

Springfield, VA 22100

Price Code: A03

Trade names or manufacturers’ names are used in this report for

identification only. This usage does not constitute an official

endorsement, either expressed or implied, by the National

Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Available electronically at http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/GLTRS
NASA/TM—2001-210590 1

Application of Mobile-ip to Space and

Aeronautical Networks

Abstract—The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is interested in applying mobile Internet protocol (mobile-ip) technologies to its space and aeronautics

programs. In particular, mobile-ip will play a major role in the

Advanced Aeronautic Transportation Technology (AATT), the

Weather Information Communication (WINCOMM), and the

Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) aeronautics programs. This paper describes mobile-ip and mobile routers—

in particular, the features, capabilities, and initial performance

of the mobile router are presented. The application of mobilerouter technology to NASA’s space and aeronautics programs

is also discussed.

TABLE oF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. MOBILE-IP

3. MOBILE ROUTER

4. MOBILE ROUTER FEATURES

5. NASA’S INTERESTS

6. SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION

Cisco Systems and NASA Glenn Research Center under a

NASA Space Act Agreement have been performing joint networking research to apply Internet technologies and protocols

to space-based communications. As a result of this joint

research Cisco Systems developed the mobile router for both

the commercial and government markets. This paper discusses

the mobile router, including its operation and relevant application areas.

2. MOBILE-IP

Unlike dynamic ip assignment, whereby a new connection has

to be established for each subnetwork, mobile-ip [1] is a routing protocol that allows hosts (and networks) to seamlessly

“roam” among various ip subnetworks. Roaming is essential

in many wireless networks. Mobile-ip can also be useful in

wireless networks where the mobile node’s point of attachment

to the network is changing as a result of varying conditions in

the wireless medium, even if the mobile node is not physically moving. Mobile-ip can also be used in a wired network

where the mobile node simply wishes to maintain its network

identity, since the mobile node is always contacted through

association of its home ip address.

There are three basic elements in mobile-ip: the home agent,

the foreign agent, and the mobile node. The home agent (HA)

is a router on a mobile node’s home network that tunnels

datagrams for delivery to the mobile node when it is away

from home and maintains current location information for the

mobile node. The foreign agent (FA) is a router on a mobile

node’s visited network that provides routing services to the

Kent Leung and Dan Shell

Cisco Systems

170 West Tasman Drive

San Jose, CA 95134–1706

408–526–5030

kleung@cisco.com

216–781–0507

dshell@cisco.com

William D. Ivancic

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Glenn Research Center

21000 Brookpark Road

Cleveland, OH 44135

216–433–3494

wivancic@grc.nasa.gov

David H. Stewart

Verizon

21000 Brookpark Road

Cleveland, OH 44135

216–433–9644

David.H.Stewart@lerc.nasa.gov

Terry L. Bell

Lockheed Martin

21000 Brookpark Road

Cleveland, OH 44135

216–433–2287

Terry.L.Bell@grc.nasa.gov

Brian A. Kachmar

Analex Corporation

3001 Aerospace Parkway

Brook Park, Ohio 44142

216–433–8655

Brian.A.Kachmar@grc.nasa.gov
NASA/TM—2001-210590 2

mobile node while it is registered. The foreign agent detunnels

and delivers datagrams to the mobile node that were tunneled

by the mobile node’s home agent. For datagrams sent by a

mobile node the foreign agent may serve as a default router

for registered mobile nodes. The mobile node (MN) is a host

or router that changes its point of attachment from one network or subnetwork to another. A mobile node may change its

location without changing its ip address; it may continue to

communicate with other Internet nodes at any location by

using its (constant) ip address, assuming that link-layer connectivity to a point of attachment is available [1].

A mobile node first determines whether it is attached to its

home network or to a foreign network by using Internet control message protocol (ICMP) router discover messages. If it

is attached to a foreign network, the mobile node determines

if a foreign agent is available. If so, the mobile node registers

with the foreign agent. The foreign agent notifies the home

agent that it has a visitor, and a unidirectional ip tunnel1 is

established from the home agent to the foreign agent. The home

agent now encapsulates all packets destined for the mobile

node and tunnels them to the foreign agent. The foreign agent

de-encapsulates the packets and forwards them on to the

mobile node. Standard ip routing is used to deliver datagrams

sent by the mobile node, with the foreign agent as the mobile

node’s default router.

Figure 1 depicts mobile-ip operation when the mobile node is

a single host. In this scenario the corresponding node requests

information from the mobile node. The request is sent first to

the mobile node’s home ip address through the Internet. Thus,

the request goes to the home agent. The home agent encapsulates the request in a second ip packet and tunnels that request

through the Internet to the foreign agent. The foreign agent

de-encapsulates the request and passes it on to the mobile node

by using the care-of-address. Once the mobile node receives

the request, it sends a reply to the corresponding node through

normal ip routing. Thus, the reply goes to the foreign agent,

which passes it on to the corresponding node through the

Internet.

3. MOBILE ROUTER

Mobile router (MR) technology is pertinent to a myriad of

applications for both the government and commercial sectors.

For example, this technology will be applied to the wireless

battlefield. NASA and the Department of Defense will use

1Tunneling enables one network to send its data through another network’s

connections. Tunneling works by encapsulating a network protocol within

packets carried by the second network.

Figure 1.—Mobile-ip tunneling.

Mobile node

Corresponding node

Home ip

128.183.13.103

Care-of-address

139.88.111.50 139.88.111.1

139.88.112.1

NASA Glenn

Foreign agent

143.232.48.1

NASA Ames

143.232.48.1

Foreign agent

128.183.13.1

NASA Goddard

Home agent

Internet or intranet
NASA/TM—2001-210590 3

this technology for near-planetary observation and for sensing spacecraft. It is the enabling technology for Internet or

intranet communications to aircraft. Information such as

weather, air traffic control, voice, and video can be easily and

inexpensively transmitted to the aircraft by using Internet protocols. The mobile router allows many of NASA’s aeronautics

programs to become a reality. Such programs include Small

Aircraft Transportation System (SATS), Weather Information

Communication (WINCOMM), and Advanced Aeronautical

Transportation Technology (AATT) Free-Flight. The mobile

router will be incorporated into emergency vehicles—

particularly ambulances and life-flight aircraft to provide realtime connectivity back to the hospital and health care experts.

Commercial applications include entertainment services, ip

telephone, and Internet connectivity for cruise ships, commercial shipping, tour buses, aircraft, and eventually cars.

The mobile router is software code that resides in a network

router. It is part of the mobile-ip standards specification. A

mobile router allows an entire network (or networks) to roam.

Hence, a device connected to the mobile router does not need

to be a mobile node, since the mobile router is providing the

roaming capabilities.

Cisco Systems has recently implemented mobile router code.

NASA Glenn and Cisco, through a Space Act Agreement, have

been performing joint research and validation tests on this code,

which will become part of Cisco Systems Internetworking

Operating System (IOS) in early 2001. The current deployment of the mobile router is for a static network. A static network supports only stub routers.

Mobile router code allows a router to be a mobile node. The

difference between a mobile host and a mobile router is that

once the mobile router has registered with the home agent, the

home agent will inject the mobile router’s networks into the

home agent’s routing table and will redistribute these routes.

This implementation is fully compliant with the Request for

Comments 2002 standard. No alteration to the specification is

necessary to achieve this static networking.

Figure 2 depicts mobile-ip operation when the mobile node is

a network. The operation is nearly identical to that of mobileip for a single host. The exceptions are that two tunnels are

established: one between the home agent and foreign agent

(tunnel-1) and one between the home agent and mobile router

(tunnel-0). The home agent performs two encapsulations of

any packet destined for the mobile router and forwards all

packets for the mobile network to the foreign agent. The foreign agent performs one de-encapsulation and passes the packets to the mobile router. The mobile router performs the second

de-encapsulation and forwards the packets to the devices on

Figure 2.—Mobile router tunneling.

10.2.3.101

Corresponding node

Home agent

128.184.25.1

HA loopback

virtual interface

139.88.100.1

FA WAN

139.88.112.1

Internet WAN

Foreign agent

128.183.13.1

Internet WAN

Mobile router

(mobile node)

10.2.4.10

MR loopback 

virtual interface

10.2.2.1

Roaming

interface

10.2.3.1

Virtual LAN

interface

Internet or intranet

Tunnel-1

Tunnel-0
NASA/TM—2001-210590 4

its networks. As the mobile router moves, it registers with its

home agent on its whereabouts by using various foreign agents.

Thus, a mobile router is a mobile node; however, the node is a

network rather than a single host.

4. MOBILE ROUTER FEATURES

The mobile router has a number of features that make it applicable to a variety of networks and applications. The mobile

router can have multiple roaming interfaces, allowing for connection to a variety of wired and wireless links. One example

would be a mobile router residing on an aircraft and having

three roaming wide-area-network (WAN) interfaces and two

nonroaming local-area-network (LAN) interfaces. One LAN

may be for aircraft operations (flight information services, air

traffic control, weather, etc.) while the second LAN is reserved

for passenger communication and entertainment services. One

roaming interface may be a 100Base-T interface for a wired

connection while at the gate. A second roaming interface may

be connected to a very high-frequency data link (VDL)

antenna. The third roaming interface may be connected to a

satellite antenna.

The mobile router can perform smooth hand-offs, preferred

path routing, and priority routing. Consider the aircraft

example: The VDL may be active during takeoff. Once in flight

both the VDL and the satellite link may be active. The preferred path may be the satellite link, assuming that it has greater

bandwidth. In this case the routing will automatically switch

from the VDL to the satellite link. If both links are up and the

satellite link goes down, the routing will automatically revert

back to the VDL. If for some reason one would prefer that the

VDL be used (for whatever reason—cost, delay, etc.), it can

be set to have a higher priority than the satellite link. Thus,

when both links are active, the routing would be by the path

with highest priority, the VDL in this example.

The home agent can be configured for hot standby. This feature is extremely important. If the home agent were to experience a catastrophic failure, all routes would be lost. We

demonstrated hot standby by pulling the power plug on the

active home agent and noting the restoration time. Restoration was nearly instantaneous.

The mobile-routing protocols perform well in long-delay environments. We tested the mobile router’s capabilities over

links with round-trip time delays in excess of 3 seconds. This

delay is far greater than a double, geostationary satellite hop.

As of November 2000 we were still addressing the following

areas: Internet protocol security (IPSec2) between the foreign

agent and the mobile router, multicasting, and unidirectional link

routing (UDLR3). Currently, IPSec does exist between the mobile

router and the home agent. Security can also be implemented

between the foreign agent and the home agent by using IPSec

and/or by establishing access lists in the home agent.

5. NASA’S INTERESTS

NASA is interested in applying commercial-off-the-shelf Internet technology to NASA missions in order to reduce costs

while simultaneously upgrading its communications networks.

Applying mobile-ip technologies to NASA missions will

facilitate these goals. The United States government has

numerous applications where mobile-ip is desired: general

computing, aeronautical telecommunications networks, orbiting space science missions, and terrestrial science missions

(Earth, Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.).

Mobile-ip is required for spacecraft communicating through a

number of ground terminals networked together (assuming

duplex communications) when each ground terminal is an

independent node on the network. Figure 3 illustrates such a

network. As the spacecraft orbits the planet, it often is not

connected to any ground terminal, as is the case for time T2.

At other times it will come in contact with one or more ground

terminals. All registration and routing will automatically

occur when using mobile-ip protocols. If the spacecraft has

multiple instruments that are ip addressable, the mobile router

will apply.

In an aeronautical network mobile-ip is required to maintain

connectivity. As the aircraft moves from region to region it is

traversing various subnetworks. Figure 4 illustrates an aeronautical network. Note that the home agent can be located

anywhere on the Internet. In this example at time T1 the

mobile router on the aircraft would be connected to the home

agent through the foreign agent FA1—perhaps through an

Ethernet link. At time T2 the mobile router is still connected

to the home agent through FA1, but now through a VDL, VDLa.

2The IPSec protocol provides secure, interoperable communications across a

network, transparent to the application.

3UDLR describes a mechanism to emulate bi-directional connectivity between nodes that are directly connected by a unidirectional link.

Figure 3.—LEO spacecraft communications 

 network.

T3

T1

T2

?
NASA/TM—2001-210590 5

At time T3 the mobile router is connected to the home agent

through FA2 and VDLb. At time T4 both the VDLb and satellite communications links may be active. The preferred path

may be through FA3 because of the larger available bandwidth.

At time T5 the mobile router is connected to the home agent

through VDLc with the foreign agent being FA4. Finally, at

landing time T6 a connection is established to FA4 through an

Ethernet link.4

Mobile-ip and the mobile router will play a major role in

NASA’s aeronautics programs including AATT, WINCOMM,

and SATS [2-4]. Each program requires continuous connectivity while dynamically traversing various subnetworks.

Figure 5 illustrates what a potential aeronautical network could

entail in 2005. Although only the United States is shown here,

connectivity will be global. Future aeronautical networks will

use whatever wireless networking is available at reasonable

cost. Low-, geostationary-, and medium-Earth-orbit (LEO,

GEO, and MEO) satellites may be used, as will VDL and perhaps next-generation cellular. Unique, cost-effective techniques

will also be deployed. An example would be using GEO

direct-broadcast, digital television satellites with data embedded in the Moving Picture Expert Group 2 (MPEG-2) transport streams to transmit data to the aircraft. The return path

would be an inexpensive, low-bandwidth, duplex channel.

UDLR would be used here.

Under the AATT program NASA is working in alliance with

the Federal Aviation Administration to enable increases in

capacity, flexibility, and efficiency, while maintaining safety,

of aircraft operations within the United States and the global

airspace system. The goals are to increase terminal throughput 40% and to increase en route throughput 20%. Current

operations in the National Air System (NAS) are severely constrained by an antiquated air traffic management system supported by a decades-old communications, navigation, and

surveillance infrastructure using primarily analog voice communications, radar surveillance, and ground-based navigational

aids. Extensive air traffic system delays and gridlock have resulted. A digital airspace infrastructure is needed to meet the

bandwidth, latency, security, and integrity requirements of the

future free-flight air traffic management system. The mobile

router is an enabling technology for such a system.

Weather is a major contributing factor in accidents. It has been

documented that weather causes 37% of accidents for domestic commercial jet traffic and over 50% for small aircraft. In

addition, weather is a factor in over 72% of air traffic accidents

4In this scenario foreign agent functionality is enabled on two interfaces for

both FA1 and FA4: the Ethernet umbilical cord interface at the gate and the

serial interface to the VDL.

Figure 4.—Aeronautical telecommunications network.

HA

FA3

FA2

FA1 FA4

VDLa

VDLb

VDLc

T4

T3

T2

T5

T6

T1

Internet or intranet
NASA/TM—2001-210590 6

internationally [5]. The goal of WINCOMM is to develop advanced communications and information technologies that will

enable high-quality aviation weather information and its timely

dissemination to all relevant users on the global aviation network. The mobile router, along with multicasting protocols,

will play a major role here.

The SATS concept of operations uses small aircraft for pointto-point, direct personal and business travel between smaller

regional landing facilities [6]. SATS will offload capacity from

the major hubs, which are currently in a state of gridlock. Some

of the major elements that need to be developed for SATS are

as follows:

1) “Smart” airports with free-flight procedures for expanded

NAS capacity

2) Flight information services broadcast by terrestrial or satellite systems

3) Traffic information services, including automatic dependent surveillance, broadcast by aircraft, terrestrial, or satellite systems

4) Destination information services for intermodal connectivity and vehicle and operator/passenger services through

terrestrial or satellite systems

5) Near-all-weather operations at nontowered airports without radar coverage

These elements can be made possible by deploying an aeronautical internet with the mobile router as a key technology.

6. SUMMARY

The capabilities and characteristics of the mobile router are as

follows:

• It enables Internet connections from many types of mobile

platform.

• It is software that allows for Networks in Motion.

• It is “set and forget.” The configuration needs to be done

only once.

• It allows the preferred path to be set by bandwidth or

priority.

• It has already implemented many Internet protocol security features.

• A dual hot-standby, mobile router capability has been

demonstrated.

• The mobile router is the enabling technology for numerous NASA programs and will be highly used in the

aeronautics arena as well as for low-Earth-orbiting Earth

observation science platforms.

Figure 5.—Command, navigation, and surveillance concept.

Value-added

service provider

Terminal

area

Domestic

en route

Oceanic

en route

LAN/WAN

LEO

networks

GEO

GEO

MEO systems

Ground

terminal

VDL

Gateway
NASA/TM—2001-210590 7

REFERENCES

[1] C. Perkins, ed.: Request for Comments: 2002, Network

Working Group, Oct. 1996.

[2] http://wincomm.grc.nasa.gov/about/, 2000.

[3] http://www.asc.nasa.gov/aatt/, 2000.

[4] http://www.unomaha.edu/~unoai/sats/, 2000.

[5] http://www.aerospace.nasa.gov/library/asist/res.htm,

2000.

[6] http://cid.unomaha.edu/~unoai/sats/SATS_

Definition.html, 2000.

Kent Leung is a senior software engineer at Cisco Systems.

He was the lead engineer responsible for developing mobileip and mobile router code.

David Stewart is a communications engineer at Verizon. He

specializes in radiofrequency and wireless communications

networks. For the past 6 years David has supported advanced

high-speed networking experiments on NASA’s Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) including support

of the optical carrier 12, high-data-rate terminals. His current work involves developing and deploying a mobile router

testbed at Glenn, as well as deploying early-field-trial aeronautical and maritime mobile networks.

Dan Shell is a senior consulting systems engineer for Cisco

Systems, Federal Operations. As the lead engineer in supporting the Cisco/NASA Space Act Agreement for joint network

research over high-delay and high-data-rate networks, he has

been actively involved with NASA Glenn Research Center in

researching ip over satellite and Internet nodes in space. In

addition to supporting NASA Glenn, Dan is also responsible

for deploying network solutions in the Federal sector—particularly with regard to wireless networks.

Will Ivancic is a senior research engineer at NASA Glenn Research

Center working in networking and advanced communications technology development. His work includes advanced digital and

radiofrequency design, communications networks, satellite onboard

processing, and system integration and testing. In addition, Will has

been responsible for developing proof-of-concept onboard processing satellite equipment, ground terminal equipment, and numerous

pieces of special test equipment. His recent research has been directed at applying commercial communications protocols to space

and aeronautical networks.

Terry Bell is a telecommunications network specialist for

Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications. Over the past

7 years he has supported ACTS spacecraft operations as well

as a variety of satellite networking experiments. His current

responsibilities include support of advanced protocol research

for space and aeronautical networks.

Brian Kachmar is a senior engineer at the Analex Corporation. He supported a myriad of advanced applications research

experiments and demonstrations under the ACTS experiments

program, including UDLR evaluations, multicasting, and

telemedicine. His current interests are in mobile-ip and mobile

networks as well as support of research for NASA’s aeronautics safety and capacity programs.
This publication is available from the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information, 301–621–0390.

REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE

2. REPORT DATE

19. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

 OF ABSTRACT

18. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

 OF THIS PAGE

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,

gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this

collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson

Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704-0188), Washington, DC 20503.

NSN 7540-01-280-5500 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 2-89)

Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39-18

298-102

Form Approved

OMB No. 0704-0188

12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE

8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION

 REPORT NUMBER

5. FUNDING NUMBERS

3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

6. AUTHOR(S)

7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

12a. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

13. ABSTRACT (Maximum 200 words)

14. SUBJECT TERMS

17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

 OF REPORT

16. PRICE CODE

15. NUMBER OF PAGES

20. LIMITATION OF ABSTRACT

Unclassified Unclassified

Technical Memorandum

Unclassified

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field

Cleveland, Ohio 44135–3191

1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank)

10. SPONSORING/MONITORING

 AGENCY REPORT NUMBER

9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Washington, DC 20546–0001

Available electronically at http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/GLTRS

February 2001

NASA TM—2001-210590

E–12548

WU–322–20–2A–00

13

A03

Satellites; Protocols; Internet

Unclassified -Unlimited

Subject Categories: 04, 17, 32, and 62 Distribution: Nonstandard

Prepared for the 2001 Aerospace Conference sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Big Sky, Montana, March 10–17, 2001.

Kent Leung and Dan Shell, Cisco Systems, 170 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, California 95134–1706; William D. Ivancic, NASA Glenn Research

Center; David H. Stewart, Verizon, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44135; Terry L. Bell, Lockheed Martin, 21000 Brookpark Road,

Cleveland, Ohio 44135; and Brian A. Kachmar, Analex Corporation, 3001 Aerospace Parkway, Brook Park, Ohio 44142. Responsible person,

William D. Ivancic, organization code 5610, 216–433–3494.

Kent Leung, Dan Shell, William D. Ivancic, David H. Stewart,

Terry L. Bell, and Brian A. Kachmar

Application of Mobile-ip to Space and Aeronautical Networks

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is interested in applying mobile Internet protocol

(mobile-ip) technologies to its space and aeronautics programs. In particular, mobile-ip will play a major role in the

Advanced Aeronautic Transportation Technology (AATT), the Weather Information Communication (WINCOMM),

and the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) aeronautics programs. This paper describes mobile-ip and mobile

routers—in particular, the features, capabilities, and initial performance of the mobile router are presented. The application of mobile-router technology to NASA’s space and aeronautics programs is also discussed.