WORKIT: Multiple Backhauls Mobile Access Router (MAR)

Prototype

The Mobile Access Router (MAR) integrates the mobility client in the mobile router platform to support dynamic backhaul monitoring and seamless handoff in addition to group mobility. The above figure shows the architecture of the Mobile Access Router (MAR) in two parts: the security /web services and the IP services modules for the internal user access; the network monitor and mobility modules interacting with the multiple backhauls. The software is implemented in Debian Linux. The kernel version supported is up to 2.6.

We set up the experimental environment at PSU from scratch and implemented the Mobile Access Router (MAR) software. We tested the backhaul monitoring and dynamic switching which have little impact on internal user access.

The major accomplishments are: 1) A virtual multi-interface network driver is designed and implemented in the kernel and custom ioctl functions are supported. 2) A mobility client module is implemented in user space to run MobileIP on the virtual interface. In order to access the Mobile IP network the Radius protocols are also supported. 3) Dynamic backhaul detection/selection protocol based on link activity and link priority has been implemented. Extension may be added to support new policies. 4) NAT is implemented to route the traffic to the virtual interface. 5) DHCP, security, web services and database modules are integrated and enhanced to support internal user access.