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<pre>Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                   C. Perkins, Ed.
Request for Comments: 6275                                 Tellabs, Inc.
Obsoletes: <a href="./rfc3775">3775</a>                                               D. Johnson
Category: Standards Track                                Rice University
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                 J. Arkko
                                                                Ericsson
                                                               July 2011


                        <span class="h1">Mobility Support in IPv6</span>

Abstract

   This document specifies Mobile IPv6, a protocol that allows nodes to
   remain reachable while moving around in the IPv6 Internet.  Each
   mobile node is always identified by its home address, regardless of
   its current point of attachment to the Internet.  While situated away
   from its home, a mobile node is also associated with a care-of
   address, which provides information about the mobile node's current
   location.  IPv6 packets addressed to a mobile node's home address are
   transparently routed to its care-of address.  The protocol enables
   IPv6 nodes to cache the binding of a mobile node's home address with
   its care-of address, and to then send any packets destined for the
   mobile node directly to it at this care-of address.  To support this
   operation, Mobile IPv6 defines a new IPv6 protocol and a new
   destination option.  All IPv6 nodes, whether mobile or stationary,
   can communicate with mobile nodes.  This document obsoletes <a href="./rfc3775">RFC 3775</a>.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in <a href="./rfc5741#section-2">Section&nbsp;2 of RFC 5741</a>.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   <a href="http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6275">http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6275</a>.










<span class="grey">Perkins, et al.              Standards Track                    [Page 1]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-2" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6275">RFC 6275</a>                Mobility Support in IPv6               July 2011</span>


Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp78">BCP 78</a> and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (<a href="http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info">http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info</a>) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
   it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
   than English.

























<span class="grey">Perkins, et al.              Standards Track                    [Page 2]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-3" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6275">RFC 6275</a>                Mobility Support in IPv6               July 2011</span>


Table of Contents

   <a href="#section-1">1</a>. Introduction ....................................................<a href="#page-7">7</a>
   <a href="#section-2">2</a>. Comparison with Mobile IP for IPv4 ..............................<a href="#page-8">8</a>
   <a href="#section-3">3</a>. Terminology .....................................................<a href="#page-9">9</a>
      <a href="#section-3.1">3.1</a>. General Terms ..............................................<a href="#page-9">9</a>
      <a href="#section-3.2">3.2</a>. Mobile IPv6 Terms .........................................<a href="#page-11">11</a>
   <a href="#section-4">4</a>. Overview of Mobile IPv6 ........................................<a href="#page-15">15</a>
      <a href="#section-4.1">4.1</a>. Basic Operation ...........................................<a href="#page-15">15</a>
      <a href="#section-4.2">4.2</a>. New IPv6 Protocol .........................................<a href="#page-17">17</a>
      <a href="#section-4.3">4.3</a>. New IPv6 Destination Option ...............................<a href="#page-18">18</a>
      <a href="#section-4.4">4.4</a>. New IPv6 ICMP Messages ....................................<a href="#page-19">19</a>
      <a href="#section-4.5">4.5</a>. Conceptual Data Structure Terminology .....................<a href="#page-19">19</a>
      <a href="#section-4.6">4.6</a>. Unique-Local Addressability ...............................<a href="#page-20">20</a>
   <a href="#section-5">5</a>. Overview of Mobile IPv6 Security ...............................<a href="#page-20">20</a>
      <a href="#section-5.1">5.1</a>. Binding Updates to Home Agents ............................<a href="#page-21">21</a>
      <a href="#section-5.2">5.2</a>. Binding Updates to Correspondent Nodes ....................<a href="#page-22">22</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.1">5.2.1</a>. Node Keys ..........................................<a href="#page-22">22</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.2">5.2.2</a>. Nonces .............................................<a href="#page-23">23</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.3">5.2.3</a>. Cookies and Tokens .................................<a href="#page-23">23</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.4">5.2.4</a>. Cryptographic Functions ............................<a href="#page-24">24</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.5">5.2.5</a>. Return Routability Procedure .......................<a href="#page-24">24</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.6">5.2.6</a>. Authorizing Binding Management Messages ............<a href="#page-28">28</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.7">5.2.7</a>. Updating Node Keys and Nonces ......................<a href="#page-30">30</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.8">5.2.8</a>. Preventing Replay Attacks ..........................<a href="#page-32">32</a>
           <a href="#section-5.2.9">5.2.9</a>. Handling Interruptions to Return Routability .......<a href="#page-32">32</a>
      <a href="#section-5.3">5.3</a>. Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery ......................<a href="#page-33">33</a>
      <a href="#section-5.4">5.4</a>. Mobile Prefix Discovery ...................................<a href="#page-33">33</a>
      <a href="#section-5.5">5.5</a>. Payload Packets ...........................................<a href="#page-33">33</a>
   <a href="#section-6">6</a>. New IPv6 Protocol, Message Types, and Destination Option .......<a href="#page-34">34</a>
      <a href="#section-6.1">6.1</a>. Mobility Header ...........................................<a href="#page-34">34</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.1">6.1.1</a>. Format .............................................<a href="#page-34">34</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.2">6.1.2</a>. Binding Refresh Request Message ....................<a href="#page-36">36</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.3">6.1.3</a>. Home Test Init Message .............................<a href="#page-37">37</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.4">6.1.4</a>. Care-of Test Init Message ..........................<a href="#page-38">38</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.5">6.1.5</a>. Home Test Message ..................................<a href="#page-39">39</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.6">6.1.6</a>. Care-of Test Message ...............................<a href="#page-41">41</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.7">6.1.7</a>. Binding Update Message .............................<a href="#page-42">42</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.8">6.1.8</a>. Binding Acknowledgement Message ....................<a href="#page-44">44</a>
           <a href="#section-6.1.9">6.1.9</a>. Binding Error Message ..............................<a href="#page-47">47</a>
      <a href="#section-6.2">6.2</a>. Mobility Options ..........................................<a href="#page-48">48</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.1">6.2.1</a>. Format .............................................<a href="#page-49">49</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.2">6.2.2</a>. Pad1 ...............................................<a href="#page-49">49</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.3">6.2.3</a>. PadN ...............................................<a href="#page-50">50</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.4">6.2.4</a>. Binding Refresh Advice .............................<a href="#page-50">50</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.5">6.2.5</a>. Alternate Care-of Address ..........................<a href="#page-51">51</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.6">6.2.6</a>. Nonce Indices ......................................<a href="#page-52">52</a>
           <a href="#section-6.2.7">6.2.7</a>. Binding Authorization Data .........................<a href="#page-52">52</a>



<span class="grey">Perkins, et al.              Standards Track                    [Page 3]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-4" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6275">RFC 6275</a>                Mobility Support in IPv6               July 2011</span>


      <a href="#section-6.3">6.3</a>. Home Address Option .......................................<a href="#page-54">54</a>
      <a href="#section-6.4">6.4</a>. Type 2 Routing Header .....................................<a href="#page-55">55</a>
           <a href="#section-6.4.1">6.4.1</a>. Format .............................................<a href="#page-56">56</a>
      <a href="#section-6.5">6.5</a>. ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Request Message .........<a href="#page-57">57</a>
      <a href="#section-6.6">6.6</a>. ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Reply Message ...........<a href="#page-58">58</a>
      <a href="#section-6.7">6.7</a>. ICMP Mobile Prefix Solicitation Message Format ............<a href="#page-60">60</a>
      <a href="#section-6.8">6.8</a>. ICMP Mobile Prefix Advertisement Message Format ...........<a href="#page-61">61</a>
   <a href="#section-7">7</a>. Modifications to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery .......................<a href="#page-64">64</a>
      <a href="#section-7.1">7.1</a>. Modified Router Advertisement Message Format ..............<a href="#page-64">64</a>
      <a href="#section-7.2">7.2</a>. Modified Prefix Information Option Format .................<a href="#page-65">65</a>
      <a href="#section-7.3">7.3</a>. New Advertisement Interval Option Format ..................<a href="#page-66">66</a>
      <a href="#section-7.4">7.4</a>. New Home Agent Information Option Format ..................<a href="#page-67">67</a>
      <a href="#section-7.5">7.5</a>. Changes to Sending Router Advertisements ..................<a href="#page-69">69</a>
   <a href="#section-8">8</a>. Requirements for Types of IPv6 Nodes ...........................<a href="#page-71">71</a>
      <a href="#section-8.1">8.1</a>. All IPv6 Nodes ............................................<a href="#page-71">71</a>
      <a href="#section-8.2">8.2</a>. IPv6 Nodes with Support for Route Optimization ............<a href="#page-72">72</a>
      <a href="#section-8.3">8.3</a>. All IPv6 Routers ..........................................<a href="#page-73">73</a>
      <a href="#section-8.4">8.4</a>. IPv6 Home Agents ..........................................<a href="#page-74">74</a>
      <a href="#section-8.5">8.5</a>. IPv6 Mobile Nodes .........................................<a href="#page-75">75</a>
   <a href="#section-9">9</a>. Correspondent Node Operation ...................................<a href="#page-76">76</a>
      <a href="#section-9.1">9.1</a>. Conceptual Data Structures ................................<a href="#page-76">76</a>
      <a href="#section-9.2">9.2</a>. Processing Mobility Headers ...............................<a href="#page-78">78</a>
      <a href="#section-9.3">9.3</a>. Packet Processing .........................................<a href="#page-78">78</a>
           <a href="#section-9.3.1">9.3.1</a>. Receiving Packets with Home Address Option .........<a href="#page-78">78</a>
           <a href="#section-9.3.2">9.3.2</a>. Sending Packets to a Mobile Node ...................<a href="#page-79">79</a>
           <a href="#section-9.3.3">9.3.3</a>. Sending Binding Error Messages .....................<a href="#page-81">81</a>
           <a href="#section-9.3.4">9.3.4</a>. Receiving ICMP Error Messages ......................<a href="#page-81">81</a>
      <a href="#section-9.4">9.4</a>. Return Routability Procedure ..............................<a href="#page-82">82</a>
           <a href="#section-9.4.1">9.4.1</a>. Receiving Home Test Init Messages ..................<a href="#page-82">82</a>
           <a href="#section-9.4.2">9.4.2</a>. Receiving Care-of Test Init Messages ...............<a href="#page-82">82</a>
           <a href="#section-9.4.3">9.4.3</a>. Sending Home Test Messages .........................<a href="#page-83">83</a>
           <a href="#section-9.4.4">9.4.4</a>. Sending Care-of Test Messages ......................<a href="#page-83">83</a>
      <a href="#section-9.5">9.5</a>. Processing Bindings .......................................<a href="#page-83">83</a>
           <a href="#section-9.5.1">9.5.1</a>. Receiving Binding Updates ..........................<a href="#page-83">83</a>
           <a href="#section-9.5.2">9.5.2</a>. Requests to Cache a Binding ........................<a href="#page-86">86</a>
           <a href="#section-9.5.3">9.5.3</a>. Requests to Delete a Binding .......................<a href="#page-86">86</a>
           <a href="#section-9.5.4">9.5.4</a>. Sending Binding Acknowledgements ...................<a href="#page-87">87</a>
           <a href="#section-9.5.5">9.5.5</a>. Sending Binding Refresh Requests ...................<a href="#page-88">88</a>
      <a href="#section-9.6">9.6</a>. Cache Replacement Policy ..................................<a href="#page-88">88</a>
   <a href="#section-10">10</a>. Home Agent Operation ..........................................<a href="#page-89">89</a>
      <a href="#section-10.1">10.1</a>. Conceptual Data Structures ...............................<a href="#page-89">89</a>
      <a href="#section-10.2">10.2</a>. Processing Mobility Headers ..............................<a href="#page-90">90</a>
      <a href="#section-10.3">10.3</a>. Processing Bindings ......................................<a href="#page-90">90</a>
           <a href="#section-10.3.1">10.3.1</a>. Primary Care-of Address Registration ..............<a href="#page-90">90</a>
           <a href="#section-10.3.2">10.3.2</a>. Primary Care-of Address De-Registration ...........<a href="#page-94">94</a>
      <a href="#section-10.4">10.4</a>. Packet Processing ........................................<a href="#page-96">96</a>
           <a href="#section-10.4.1">10.4.1</a>. Intercepting Packets for a Mobile Node ............<a href="#page-96">96</a>
           <a href="#section-10.4.2">10.4.2</a>. Processing Intercepted Packets ....................<a href="#page-98">98</a>



<span class="grey">Perkins, et al.              Standards Track                    [Page 4]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-5" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6275">RFC 6275</a>                Mobility Support in IPv6               July 2011</span>


           <a href="#section-10.4.3">10.4.3</a>. Multicast Membership Control ......................<a href="#page-99">99</a>
           <a href="#section-10.4.4">10.4.4</a>. Stateful Address Autoconfiguration ...............<a href="#page-100">100</a>
           <a href="#section-10.4.5">10.4.5</a>. Handling Reverse-Tunneled Packets ................<a href="#page-100">100</a>
           <a href="#section-10.4.6">10.4.6</a>. Protecting Return Routability Packets ............<a href="#page-101">101</a>
      <a href="#section-10.5">10.5</a>. Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery ....................<a href="#page-102">102</a>
           <a href="#section-10.5.1">10.5.1</a>. Receiving Router Advertisement Messages ..........<a href="#page-102">102</a>
      <a href="#section-10.6">10.6</a>. Sending Prefix Information to the Mobile Node ...........<a href="#page-104">104</a>
           <a href="#section-10.6.1">10.6.1</a>. List of Home Network Prefixes ....................<a href="#page-104">104</a>
           <a href="#section-10.6.2">10.6.2</a>. Scheduling Prefix Deliveries .....................<a href="#page-105">105</a>
           <a href="#section-10.6.3">10.6.3</a>. Sending Advertisements ...........................<a href="#page-107">107</a>
           <a href="#section-10.6.4">10.6.4</a>. Lifetimes for Changed Prefixes ...................<a href="#page-108">108</a>
   <a href="#section-11">11</a>. Mobile Node Operation ........................................<a href="#page-108">108</a>
      <a href="#section-11.1">11.1</a>. Conceptual Data Structures ..............................<a href="#page-108">108</a>
      <a href="#section-11.2">11.2</a>. Processing Mobility Headers .............................<a href="#page-110">110</a>
      <a href="#section-11.3">11.3</a>. Packet Processing .......................................<a href="#page-110">110</a>
           <a href="#section-11.3.1">11.3.1</a>. Sending Packets While Away from Home .............<a href="#page-110">110</a>
           <a href="#section-11.3.2">11.3.2</a>. Interaction with Outbound IPsec Processing .......<a href="#page-113">113</a>
           <a href="#section-11.3.3">11.3.3</a>. Receiving Packets While Away from Home ...........<a href="#page-115">115</a>
           <a href="#section-11.3.4">11.3.4</a>. Routing Multicast Packets ........................<a href="#page-117">117</a>
           <a href="#section-11.3.5">11.3.5</a>. Receiving ICMP Error Messages ....................<a href="#page-118">118</a>
           <a href="#section-11.3.6">11.3.6</a>. Receiving Binding Error Messages .................<a href="#page-119">119</a>
      <a href="#section-11.4">11.4</a>. Home Agent and Prefix Management ........................<a href="#page-120">120</a>
           <a href="#section-11.4.1">11.4.1</a>. Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery .............<a href="#page-120">120</a>
           <a href="#section-11.4.2">11.4.2</a>. Sending Mobile Prefix Solicitations ..............<a href="#page-121">121</a>
           <a href="#section-11.4.3">11.4.3</a>. Receiving Mobile Prefix Advertisements ...........<a href="#page-121">121</a>
      <a href="#section-11.5">11.5</a>. Movement ................................................<a href="#page-123">123</a>
           <a href="#section-11.5.1">11.5.1</a>. Movement Detection ...............................<a href="#page-123">123</a>
           <a href="#section-11.5.2">11.5.2</a>. Home Link Detection ..............................<a href="#page-125">125</a>
           <a href="#section-11.5.3">11.5.3</a>. Forming New Care-of Addresses ....................<a href="#page-126">126</a>
           <a href="#section-11.5.4">11.5.4</a>. Using Multiple Care-of Addresses .................<a href="#page-127">127</a>
           <a href="#section-11.5.5">11.5.5</a>. Returning Home ...................................<a href="#page-127">127</a>
      <a href="#section-11.6">11.6</a>. Return Routability Procedure ............................<a href="#page-130">130</a>
           <a href="#section-11.6.1">11.6.1</a>. Sending Test Init Messages .......................<a href="#page-130">130</a>
           <a href="#section-11.6.2">11.6.2</a>. Receiving Test Messages ..........................<a href="#page-131">131</a>
           <a href="#section-11.6.3">11.6.3</a>. Protecting Return Routability Packets ............<a href="#page-132">132</a>
      <a href="#section-11.7">11.7</a>. Processing Bindings .....................................<a href="#page-132">132</a>
           <a href="#section-11.7.1">11.7.1</a>. Sending Binding Updates to the Home Agent ........<a href="#page-132">132</a>
           <a href="#section-11.7.2">11.7.2</a>. Correspondent Registration .......................<a href="#page-135">135</a>
           <a href="#section-11.7.3">11.7.3</a>. Receiving Binding Acknowledgements ...............<a href="#page-138">138</a>
           <a href="#section-11.7.4">11.7.4</a>. Receiving Binding Refresh Requests ...............<a href="#page-140">140</a>
      <a href="#section-11.8">11.8</a>. Retransmissions and Rate Limiting .......................<a href="#page-141">141</a>
   <a href="#section-12">12</a>. Protocol Constants ...........................................<a href="#page-142">142</a>
   <a href="#section-13">13</a>. Protocol Configuration Variables .............................<a href="#page-142">142</a>
   <a href="#section-14">14</a>. IANA Considerations ..........................................<a href="#page-143">143</a>
   <a href="#section-15">15</a>. Security Considerations ......................................<a href="#page-146">146</a>
      <a href="#section-15.1">15.1</a>. Threats .................................................<a href="#page-146">146</a>
      <a href="#section-15.2">15.2</a>. Features ................................................<a href="#page-148">148</a>
      <a href="#section-15.3">15.3</a>. Binding Updates to Home Agent ...........................<a href="#page-150">150</a>



<span class="grey">Perkins, et al.              Standards Track                    [Page 5]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-6" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6275">RFC 6275</a>                Mobility Support in IPv6               July 2011</span>


      <a href="#section-15.4">15.4</a>. Binding Updates to Correspondent Nodes ..................<a href="#page-152">152</a>
           <a href="#section-15.4.1">15.4.1</a>. Overview .........................................<a href="#page-153">153</a>
           <a href="#section-15.4.2">15.4.2</a>. Achieved Security Properties .....................<a href="#page-153">153</a>
           <a href="#section-15.4.3">15.4.3</a>. Comparison to Regular IPv6 Communications ........<a href="#page-154">154</a>
           <a href="#section-15.4.4">15.4.4</a>. Replay Attacks ...................................<a href="#page-156">156</a>
           <a href="#section-15.4.5">15.4.5</a>. Denial-of-Service Attacks ........................<a href="#page-156">156</a>
           <a href="#section-15.4.6">15.4.6</a>. Key Lengths ......................................<a href="#page-157">157</a>
      <a href="#section-15.5">15.5</a>. Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery ....................<a href="#page-158">158</a>
      <a href="#section-15.6">15.6</a>. Mobile Prefix Discovery .................................<a href="#page-159">159</a>
      <a href="#section-15.7">15.7</a>. Tunneling via the Home Agent ............................<a href="#page-159">159</a>
      <a href="#section-15.8">15.8</a>. Home Address Option .....................................<a href="#page-160">160</a>
      <a href="#section-15.9">15.9</a>. Type 2 Routing Header ...................................<a href="#page-161">161</a>
      <a href="#section-15.10">15.10</a>. SHA-1 Secure Enough for Mobile IPv6 Control Messages ...<a href="#page-161">161</a>
   <a href="#section-16">16</a>. Contributors .................................................<a href="#page-162">162</a>
   <a href="#section-17">17</a>. Acknowledgements .............................................<a href="#page-162">162</a>
   <a href="#section-18">18</a>. References ...................................................<a href="#page-162">162</a>
      <a href="#section-18.1">18.1</a>. Normative References ....................................<a href="#page-162">162</a>
      <a href="#section-18.2">18.2</a>. Informative References ..................................<a href="#page-164">164</a>
   <a href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>. Future Extensions ....................................<a href="#page-166">166</a>
      <a href="#appendix-A.1">A.1</a>. Piggybacking .............................................<a href="#page-166">166</a>
      <a href="#appendix-A.2">A.2</a>. Triangular Routing .......................................<a href="#page-166">166</a>
      <a href="#appendix-A.3">A.3</a>. New Authorization Methods ................................<a href="#page-166">166</a>
      <a href="#appendix-A.4">A.4</a>. Neighbor Discovery Extensions ............................<a href="#page-166">166</a>
   <a href="#appendix-B">Appendix B</a>. Changes since <a href="./rfc3775">RFC 3775</a> ...............................<a href="#page-167">167</a>



























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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-1" href="#section-1">1</a>.  Introduction</span>

   This document specifies a protocol that allows nodes to remain
   reachable while moving around in the IPv6 Internet.  Without specific
   support for mobility in IPv6 [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>], packets destined to a mobile node
   would not be able to reach it while the mobile node is away from its
   home link.  In order to continue communication in spite of its
   movement, a mobile node could change its IP address each time it
   moves to a new link, but the mobile node would then not be able to
   maintain transport and higher-layer connections when it changes
   location.  Mobility support in IPv6 is particularly important, as
   mobile computers are likely to account for a majority or at least a
   substantial fraction of the population of the Internet during the
   lifetime of IPv6.

   The protocol defined in this document, known as Mobile IPv6, allows a
   mobile node to move from one link to another without changing the
   mobile node's "home address".  Packets may be routed to the mobile
   node using this address regardless of the mobile node's current point
   of attachment to the Internet.  The mobile node may also continue to
   communicate with other nodes (stationary or mobile) after moving to a
   new link.  The movement of a mobile node away from its home link is
   thus transparent to transport and higher-layer protocols and
   applications.

   The Mobile IPv6 protocol is just as suitable for mobility across
   homogeneous media as for mobility across heterogeneous media.  For
   example, Mobile IPv6 facilitates node movement from one Ethernet
   segment to another as well as it facilitates node movement from an
   Ethernet segment to a wireless LAN cell, with the mobile node's IP
   address remaining unchanged in spite of such movement.

   One can think of the Mobile IPv6 protocol as solving the network-
   layer mobility management problem.  Some mobility management
   applications -- for example, handover among wireless transceivers,
   each of which covers only a very small geographic area -- have been
   solved using link-layer techniques.  For example, in many current
   wireless LAN products, link-layer mobility mechanisms allow a
   "handover" of a mobile node from one cell to another, re-establishing
   link-layer connectivity to the node in each new location.

   Mobile IPv6 does not attempt to solve all general problems related to
   the use of mobile computers or wireless networks.  In particular,
   this protocol does not attempt to solve:

   o  Handling links with unidirectional connectivity or partial
      reachability, such as the hidden terminal problem where a host is
      hidden from only some of the routers on the link.



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   o  Access control on a link being visited by a mobile node.

   o  Local or hierarchical forms of mobility management (similar to
      many current link-layer mobility management solutions).

   o  Assistance for adaptive applications.

   o  Mobile routers.

   o  Service discovery.

   o  Distinguishing between packets lost due to bit errors versus
      network congestion.

   This document obsoletes <a href="./rfc3775">RFC 3775</a>.  Issues with the original document
   have been observed during the integration, testing, and deployment of
   <a href="./rfc3775">RFC 3775</a>.  A more detailed list of the changes since <a href="./rfc3775">RFC 3775</a> may be
   found in <a href="#appendix-B">Appendix B</a>.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-2" href="#section-2">2</a>.  Comparison with Mobile IP for IPv4</span>

   The design of Mobile IP support in IPv6 (Mobile IPv6) benefits both
   from the experiences gained from the development of Mobile IP support
   in IPv4 (Mobile IPv4) [<a href="#ref-32" title="&quot;IP Mobility Support for IPv4, Revised&quot;">32</a>] [<a href="#ref-25" title="&quot;IP Encapsulation within IP&quot;">25</a>] [<a href="#ref-26" title="&quot;Minimal Encapsulation within IP&quot;">26</a>], and from the opportunities
   provided by IPv6.  Mobile IPv6 thus shares many features with Mobile
   IPv4, but is integrated into IPv6 and offers many other improvements.
   This section summarizes the major differences between Mobile IPv4 and
   Mobile IPv6:

   o  There is no need to deploy special routers as "foreign agents", as
      in Mobile IPv4.  Mobile IPv6 operates in any location without any
      special support required from the local router.

   o  Support for route optimization is a fundamental part of the
      protocol, rather than a nonstandard set of extensions.

   o  Mobile IPv6 route optimization can operate securely even without
      pre-arranged security associations.  It is expected that route
      optimization can be deployed on a global scale between all mobile
      nodes and correspondent nodes.

   o  Support is also integrated into Mobile IPv6 for allowing route
      optimization to coexist efficiently with routers that perform
      "ingress filtering" [<a href="#ref-27" title="&quot;Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing&quot;">27</a>].

   o  The IPv6 Neighbor Unreachability Detection ensures symmetric
      reachability between the mobile node and its default router in the
      current location.



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   o  Most packets sent to a mobile node while away from home in Mobile
      IPv6 are sent using an IPv6 routing header rather than IP
      encapsulation, reducing the amount of resulting overhead compared
      to Mobile IPv4.

   o  Mobile IPv6 is decoupled from any particular link layer, as it
      uses IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] instead of the Address
      Resolution Protocol (ARP).  This also improves the robustness of
      the protocol.

   o  The use of IPv6 encapsulation (and the routing header) removes the
      need in Mobile IPv6 to manage "tunnel soft state".

   o  The dynamic home agent address discovery mechanism in Mobile IPv6
      returns a single reply to the mobile node.  The directed broadcast
      approach used in IPv4 returns separate replies from each home
      agent.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-3" href="#section-3">3</a>.  Terminology</span>

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in <a href="./rfc2119">RFC 2119</a> [<a href="#ref-2" title="&quot;Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels&quot;">2</a>].

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.1" href="#section-3.1">3.1</a>.  General Terms</span>

   IP

      Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).

   node

      A device that implements IP.

   router

      A node that forwards IP packets not explicitly addressed to
      itself.

   unicast routable address

      An identifier for a single interface such that a packet sent to it
      from another IPv6 subnet is delivered to the interface identified
      by that address.  Accordingly, a unicast routable address must be
      either a global IPv6 address or a unique local IPv6 address.






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   host

      Any node that is not a router.

   link

      A communication facility or medium over which nodes can
      communicate at the link layer, such as an Ethernet (simple or
      bridged).  A link is the layer immediately below IP.

   interface

      A node's attachment to a link.

   subnet prefix

      A bit string that consists of some number of initial bits of an IP
      address.

   interface identifier

      A number used to identify a node's interface on a link.  The
      interface identifier is the remaining low-order bits in the node's
      IP address after the subnet prefix.

   link-layer address

      A link-layer identifier for an interface, such as IEEE 802
      addresses on Ethernet links.

   packet

      An IP header plus payload.

   security association

      An IPsec security association is a cooperative relationship formed
      by the sharing of cryptographic keying material and associated
      context.  Security associations are simplex.  That is, two
      security associations are needed to protect bidirectional traffic
      between two nodes, one for each direction.

   security policy database

      A database that specifies what security services are to be offered
      to IP packets and in what fashion.





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   destination option

      Destination options are carried by the IPv6 Destination Options
      extension header.  Destination options include optional
      information that need be examined only by the IPv6 node given as
      the destination address in the IPv6 header, not by routers in
      between.  Mobile IPv6 defines one new destination option, the Home
      Address destination option (see <a href="#section-6.3">Section 6.3</a>).

   routing header

      A routing header may be present as an IPv6 header extension, and
      indicates that the payload has to be delivered to a destination
      IPv6 address in some way that is different from what would be
      carried out by standard Internet routing.  In this document, use
      of the term "routing header" typically refers to use of a type 2
      routing header, as specified in <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>.

   "|" (concatenation)

      Some formulas in this specification use the symbol "|" to indicate
      bytewise concatenation, as in A | B.  This concatenation requires
      that all of the octets of the datum A appear first in the result,
      followed by all of the octets of the datum B.

   First (size, input)

      Some formulas in this specification use a functional form "First
      (size, input)" to indicate truncation of the "input" data so that
      only the first "size" bits remain to be used.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-3.2" href="#section-3.2">3.2</a>.  Mobile IPv6 Terms</span>

   These terms are intended to be compatible with the definitions given
   in <a href="./rfc3753">RFC 3753</a> [<a href="#ref-40" title="&quot;Mobility Related Terminology&quot;">40</a>].  However, if there is any conflict, the definitions
   given here should be considered to supersede those in <a href="./rfc3753">RFC 3753</a>.

   home address

      A unicast routable address assigned to a mobile node, used as the
      permanent address of the mobile node.  This address is within the
      mobile node's home link.  Standard IP routing mechanisms will
      deliver packets destined for a mobile node's home address to its
      home link.  Mobile nodes can have multiple home addresses, for
      instance, when there are multiple home prefixes on the home link.






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   home subnet prefix

      The IP subnet prefix corresponding to a mobile node's home
      address.

   home link

      The link on which a mobile node's home subnet prefix is defined.

   mobile node

      A node that can change its point of attachment from one link to
      another, while still being reachable via its home address.

   movement

      A change in a mobile node's point of attachment to the Internet
      such that it is no longer connected to the same link as it was
      previously.  If a mobile node is not currently attached to its
      home link, the mobile node is said to be "away from home".

   Layer 2 (L2) handover

      A process by which the mobile node changes from one link-layer
      connection to another.  For example, a change of wireless access
      point is an L2 handover.

   Layer 3 (L3) handover

      Subsequent to an L2 handover, a mobile node detects a change in an
      on-link subnet prefix that would require a change in the primary
      care-of address.  For example, a change of access router
      subsequent to a change of wireless access point typically results
      in an L3 handover.

   correspondent node

      A peer node with which a mobile node is communicating.  The
      correspondent node may be either mobile or stationary.

   foreign subnet prefix

      Any IP subnet prefix other than the mobile node's home subnet
      prefix.







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   foreign link

      Any link other than the mobile node's home link.

   care-of address

      A unicast routable address associated with a mobile node while
      visiting a foreign link; the subnet prefix of this IP address is a
      foreign subnet prefix.  Among the multiple care-of addresses that
      a mobile node may have at any given time (e.g., with different
      subnet prefixes), the one registered with the mobile node's home
      agent for a given home address is called its "primary" care-of
      address.

   home agent

      A router on a mobile node's home link with which the mobile node
      has registered its current care-of address.  While the mobile node
      is away from home, the home agent intercepts packets on the home
      link destined to the mobile node's home address, encapsulates
      them, and tunnels them to the mobile node's registered care-of
      address.

   binding

      The association of the home address of a mobile node with a
      care-of address for that mobile node, along with the remaining
      lifetime of that association.

   registration

      The process during which a mobile node sends a Binding Update to
      its home agent or a correspondent node, causing a binding for the
      mobile node to be registered.

   mobility message

      A message containing a Mobility Header (see <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>).

   binding authorization

      Correspondent registration needs to be authorized to allow the
      recipient to believe that the sender has the right to specify a
      new binding.







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   return routability procedure

      The return routability procedure authorizes registrations by the
      use of a cryptographic token exchange.

   correspondent registration

      A return routability procedure followed by a registration, run
      between the mobile node and a correspondent node.

   home registration

      A registration between the mobile node and its home agent,
      authorized by the use of IPsec.

   nonce

      Nonces are random numbers used internally by the correspondent
      node in the creation of keygen tokens related to the return
      routability procedure.  The nonces are not specific to a mobile
      node, and are kept secret within the correspondent node.

   nonce index

      A nonce index is used to indicate which nonces have been used when
      creating keygen token values, without revealing the nonces
      themselves.

   cookie

      A cookie is a random number used by a mobile node to prevent
      spoofing by a bogus correspondent node in the return routability
      procedure.

   care-of init cookie

      A cookie sent to the correspondent node in the Care-of Test Init
      message, to be returned in the Care-of Test message.

   home init cookie

      A cookie sent to the correspondent node in the Home Test Init
      message, to be returned in the Home Test message.








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   keygen token

      A keygen token is a number supplied by a correspondent node in the
      return routability procedure to enable the mobile node to compute
      the necessary binding management key for authorizing a Binding
      Update.

   care-of keygen token

      A keygen token sent by the correspondent node in the Care-of Test
      message.

   home keygen token

      A keygen token sent by the correspondent node in the Home Test
      message.

   binding management key (Kbm)

      A binding management key (Kbm) is a key used for authorizing a
      binding cache management message (e.g., Binding Update or Binding
      Acknowledgement).  Return routability provides a way to create a
      binding management key.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-4" href="#section-4">4</a>.  Overview of Mobile IPv6</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.1" href="#section-4.1">4.1</a>.  Basic Operation</span>

   A mobile node is always expected to be addressable at its home
   address, whether it is currently attached to its home link or is away
   from home.  The "home address" is an IP address assigned to the
   mobile node within its home subnet prefix on its home link.  While a
   mobile node is at home, packets addressed to its home address are
   routed to the mobile node's home link, using conventional Internet
   routing mechanisms.

   While a mobile node is attached to some foreign link away from home,
   it is also addressable at one or more care-of addresses.  A care-of
   address is an IP address associated with a mobile node that has the
   subnet prefix of a particular foreign link.  The mobile node can
   acquire its care-of address through conventional IPv6 mechanisms,
   such as stateless or stateful auto-configuration.  As long as the
   mobile node stays in this location, packets addressed to this care-of
   address will be routed to the mobile node.  The mobile node may also
   accept packets from several care-of addresses, such as when it is
   moving but still reachable at the previous link.





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   The association between a mobile node's home address and care-of
   address is known as a "binding" for the mobile node.  While away from
   home, a mobile node registers its primary care-of address with a
   router on its home link, requesting this router to function as the
   "home agent" for the mobile node.  The mobile node performs this
   binding registration by sending a "Binding Update" message to the
   home agent.  The home agent replies to the mobile node by returning a
   "Binding Acknowledgement" message.  The operation of the mobile node
   is specified in <a href="#section-11">Section 11</a>, and the operation of the home agent is
   specified in <a href="#section-10">Section 10</a>.

   Any node communicating with a mobile node is referred to in this
   document as a "correspondent node" of the mobile node, and may itself
   be either a stationary node or a mobile node.  Mobile nodes can
   provide information about their current location to correspondent
   nodes.  This happens through the correspondent registration.  As a
   part of this procedure, a return routability test is performed in
   order to authorize the establishment of the binding.  The operation
   of the correspondent node is specified in <a href="#section-9">Section 9</a>.

   There are two possible modes for communications between the mobile
   node and a correspondent node.  The first mode, bidirectional
   tunneling, does not require Mobile IPv6 support from the
   correspondent node and is available even if the mobile node has not
   registered its current binding with the correspondent node.  Packets
   from the correspondent node are routed to the home agent and then
   tunneled to the mobile node.  Packets to the correspondent node are
   tunneled from the mobile node to the home agent ("reverse tunneled")
   and then routed normally from the home network to the correspondent
   node.  In this mode, the home agent uses proxy Neighbor Discovery to
   intercept any IPv6 packets addressed to the mobile node's home
   address (or home addresses) on the home link.  Each intercepted
   packet is tunneled to the mobile node's primary care-of address.
   This tunneling is performed using IPv6 encapsulation [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>].

   The second mode, "route optimization", requires the mobile node to
   register its current binding at the correspondent node.  Packets from
   the correspondent node can be routed directly to the care-of address
   of the mobile node.  When sending a packet to any IPv6 destination,
   the correspondent node checks its cached bindings for an entry for
   the packet's destination address.  If a cached binding for this
   destination address is found, the node uses a new type of IPv6
   routing header [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>] (see <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>) to route the packet to the
   mobile node by way of the care-of address indicated in this binding.







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   Routing packets directly to the mobile node's care-of address allows
   the shortest communications path to be used.  It also eliminates
   congestion at the mobile node's home agent and home link.  In
   addition, the impact of temporary failures of the home agent or
   networks on the path to or from the home agent is reduced.

   When routing packets directly to the mobile node, the correspondent
   node sets the Destination Address in the IPv6 header to the care-of
   address of the mobile node.  A new type of IPv6 routing header (see
   <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>) is also added to the packet to carry the desired home
   address.  Similarly, the mobile node sets the Source Address in the
   packet's IPv6 header to its current care-of addresses.  The mobile
   node adds a new IPv6 "Home Address" destination option (see
   <a href="#section-6.3">Section 6.3</a>) to carry its home address.  The inclusion of home
   addresses in these packets makes the use of the care-of address
   transparent above the network layer (e.g., at the transport layer).

   Mobile IPv6 also provides support for multiple home agents, and a
   limited support for the reconfiguration of the home network.  In
   these cases, the mobile node may not know the IP address of its own
   home agent, and even the home subnet prefixes may change over time.
   A mechanism known as "dynamic home agent address discovery" allows a
   mobile node to dynamically discover the IP address of a home agent on
   its home link, even when the mobile node is away from home.  Mobile
   nodes can also learn new information about home subnet prefixes
   through the "mobile prefix discovery" mechanism.  These mechanisms
   are described starting in <a href="#section-6.5">Section 6.5</a>.

   This document is written under the assumption that the mobile node is
   configured with the home prefix for the mobile node to be able to
   discover a home agent and configure a home address.  This might be
   limiting in deployments where the home agent and the home address for
   the mobile node need to be assigned dynamically.  Additional
   mechanisms have been specified for the mobile node to dynamically
   configure a home agent, a home address, and the home prefix.  These
   mechanisms are described in "Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split
   Scenario" [<a href="#ref-22" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario&quot;">22</a>] and "MIP6-bootstrapping for the Integrated Scenario"
   [<a href="#ref-36" title="&quot;MIP6-bootstrapping for the Integrated Scenario&quot;">36</a>].

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.2" href="#section-4.2">4.2</a>.  New IPv6 Protocol</span>

   Mobile IPv6 defines a new IPv6 protocol, using the Mobility Header
   (see <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>).  This header is used to carry the following
   messages:

   Home Test Init

   Home Test



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   Care-of Test Init

   Care-of Test

      These four messages are used to perform the return routability
      procedure from the mobile node to a correspondent node.  This
      ensures authorization of subsequent Binding Updates, as described
      in <a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>.

   Binding Update

      A Binding Update is used by a mobile node to notify a
      correspondent node or the mobile node's home agent of its current
      binding.  The Binding Update sent to the mobile node's home agent
      to register its primary care-of address is marked as a "home
      registration".

   Binding Acknowledgement

      A Binding Acknowledgement is used to acknowledge receipt of a
      Binding Update, if an acknowledgement was requested in the Binding
      Update (e.g., the Binding Update was sent to a home agent), or an
      error occurred.

   Binding Refresh Request

      A Binding Refresh Request is used by a correspondent node to
      request that a mobile node re-establish its binding with the
      correspondent node.  This message is typically used when the
      cached binding is in active use but the binding's lifetime is
      close to expiration.  The correspondent node may use, for
      instance, recent traffic and open transport layer connections as
      an indication of active use.

   Binding Error

      The Binding Error is used by the correspondent node to signal an
      error related to mobility, such as an inappropriate attempt to use
      the Home Address destination option without an existing binding.
      The Binding Error message is also used by the home agent to signal
      an error to the mobile node, if it receives an unrecognized
      Mobility Header Message Type from the mobile node.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.3" href="#section-4.3">4.3</a>.  New IPv6 Destination Option</span>

   Mobile IPv6 defines a new IPv6 destination option, the Home Address
   destination option.  This option is described in detail in
   <a href="#section-6.3">Section 6.3</a>.



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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.4" href="#section-4.4">4.4</a>.  New IPv6 ICMP Messages</span>

   Mobile IPv6 also introduces four new ICMP message types, two for use
   in the dynamic home agent address discovery mechanism, and two for
   renumbering and mobile configuration mechanisms.  As described in
   Sections <a href="#section-10.5">10.5</a> and <a href="#section-11.4.1">11.4.1</a>, the following two new ICMP message types
   are used for home agent address discovery:

   o  Home Agent Address Discovery Request, described in <a href="#section-6.5">Section 6.5</a>.

   o  Home Agent Address Discovery Reply, described in <a href="#section-6.6">Section 6.6</a>.

   The next two message types are used for network renumbering and
   address configuration on the mobile node, as described in
   <a href="#section-10.6">Section 10.6</a>:

   o  Mobile Prefix Solicitation, described in <a href="#section-6.7">Section 6.7</a>.

   o  Mobile Prefix Advertisement, described in <a href="#section-6.8">Section 6.8</a>.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.5" href="#section-4.5">4.5</a>.  Conceptual Data Structure Terminology</span>

   This document describes the Mobile IPv6 protocol in terms of the
   following conceptual data structures:

   Binding Cache

      A cache of bindings for other nodes.  This cache is maintained by
      home agents and correspondent nodes.  The cache contains both
      "correspondent registration" entries (see <a href="#section-9.1">Section 9.1</a>) and "home
      registration" entries (see <a href="#section-10.1">Section 10.1</a>).

   Binding Update List

      This list is maintained by each mobile node.  The list has an item
      for every binding that the mobile node has or is trying to
      establish with a specific other node.  Both correspondent and home
      registrations are included in this list.  Entries from the list
      are deleted as the lifetime of the binding expires.  See
      <a href="#section-11.1">Section 11.1</a>.











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   Home Agents List

      Home agents need to know which other home agents are on the same
      link.  This information is stored in the Home Agents List, as
      described in more detail in <a href="#section-10.1">Section 10.1</a>.  The list is used for
      informing mobile nodes during dynamic home agent address
      discovery.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.6" href="#section-4.6">4.6</a>.  Unique-Local Addressability</span>

   This specification requires that home and care-of addresses MUST be
   unicast routable addresses.  Unique-local IPv6 unicast addresses
   (ULAs, <a href="./rfc4193">RFC 4193</a> [<a href="#ref-15" title="&quot;Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses&quot;">15</a>]) may be usable on networks that use such non-
   globally routable addresses, but this specification does not define
   when such usage is safe and when it is not.  Mobile nodes may not be
   able to distinguish between their home site and the site at which
   they are currently located.  This can make it hard to prevent
   accidental attachment to other sites, because the mobile node might
   use the ULA at another site, which could not be used to successfully
   send packets to the mobile node's home agent (HA).  This would result
   in unreachability between the mobile node (MN) and the HA, when
   unique-local IPv6 routable addresses are used as care-of addresses.
   Similarly, CNs outside the MN's own site will not be reachable when
   ULAs are used as home addresses.  Therefore, unique-local IPv6
   unicast addresses SHOULD NOT be used as home or care-of addresses
   when other address choices are available.  If such addresses are
   used, however, according to <a href="./rfc4193">RFC 4193</a> [<a href="#ref-15" title="&quot;Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses&quot;">15</a>], they are treated as any
   global unicast IPv6 address so, for the remainder of this
   specification, use of unique-local IPv6 unicast addresses is not
   differentiated from other globally unique IPv6 addresses.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-5" href="#section-5">5</a>.  Overview of Mobile IPv6 Security</span>

   This specification provides a number of security features.  These
   include the protection of Binding Updates both to home agents and
   correspondent nodes, the protection of mobile prefix discovery, and
   the protection of the mechanisms that Mobile IPv6 uses for
   transporting data packets.

   Binding Updates are protected by the use of IPsec extension headers,
   or by the use of the Binding Authorization Data option.  This option
   employs a binding management key, Kbm, which can be established
   through the return routability procedure.  Mobile prefix discovery is
   protected through the use of IPsec extension headers.  Mechanisms
   related to transporting payload packets -- such as the Home Address
   destination option and type 2 routing header -- have been specified
   in a manner that restricts their use in attacks.




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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.1" href="#section-5.1">5.1</a>.  Binding Updates to Home Agents</span>

   The mobile node and the home agent MUST use an IPsec security
   association to protect the integrity and authenticity of the Binding
   Updates and Acknowledgements.  Both the mobile nodes and the home
   agents MUST support and SHOULD use the Encapsulating Security Payload
   (ESP) [<a href="#ref-5" title="&quot;IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)&quot;">5</a>] header in transport mode and MUST use a non-NULL payload
   authentication algorithm to provide data origin authentication,
   connectionless integrity, and optional anti-replay protection.  Note
   that Authentication Header (AH) [<a href="#ref-4" title="&quot;IP Authentication Header&quot;">4</a>] is also possible but for brevity
   not discussed in this specification.

   In order to protect messages exchanged between the mobile node and
   the home agent with IPsec, appropriate security policy database
   entries must be created.  A mobile node must be prevented from using
   its security association to send a Binding Update on behalf of
   another mobile node using the same home agent.  This MUST be achieved
   by having the home agent check that the given home address has been
   used with the right security association.  Such a check is provided
   in the IPsec processing, by having the security policy database
   entries unequivocally identify a single security association for
   protecting Binding Updates between any given home address and home
   agent.  In order to make this possible, it is necessary that the home
   address of the mobile node is visible in the Binding Updates and
   Acknowledgements.  The home address is used in these packets as a
   source or destination, or in the Home Address destination option or
   the type 2 routing header.

   As with all IPsec security associations in this specification, manual
   configuration of security associations MUST be supported.  The shared
   secrets used MUST be random and unique for different mobile nodes,
   and MUST be distributed off-line to the mobile nodes.  Automatic key
   management with the Internet Key Exchange Protocol version 2 (IKEv2)
   [<a href="#ref-24" title="&quot;Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)&quot;">24</a>] MAY be supported as described in [<a href="#ref-20" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Operation with IKEv2 and the Revised IPsec Architecture&quot;">20</a>].

   <a href="#section-11.3.2">Section 11.3.2</a> discusses how IKEv2 connections to the home agent need
   a careful treatment of the addresses used for transporting IKEv2.
   This is necessary to ensure that a Binding Update is not needed
   before the IKEv2 exchange that is needed for securing the Binding
   Update.

   More detailed descriptions and examples using IPsec to protect
   communications between the mobile node and the home agent have been
   published [<a href="#ref-12" title="&quot;Using IPsec to Protect Mobile IPv6 Signaling Between Mobile Nodes and Home Agents&quot;">12</a>][20].







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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2" href="#section-5.2">5.2</a>.  Binding Updates to Correspondent Nodes</span>

   The protection of Binding Updates sent to correspondent nodes does
   not require the configuration of security associations or the
   existence of an authentication infrastructure between the mobile
   nodes and correspondent nodes.  Instead, a method called the return
   routability procedure is used to ensure that the right mobile node is
   sending the message.  This method does not protect against attackers
   who are on the path between the home network and the correspondent
   node.  However, attackers in such a location are capable of
   performing the same attacks even without Mobile IPv6.  The main
   advantage of the return routability procedure is that it limits the
   potential attackers to those having an access to one specific path in
   the Internet, and avoids forged Binding Updates from anywhere else in
   the Internet.  For a more in-depth explanation of the security
   properties of the return routability procedure, see <a href="#section-15">Section 15</a>.
   Also, consult [<a href="#ref-43" title="&quot;Mobile IP Version 6 Route Optimization Security Design Background&quot;">43</a>].

   The integrity and authenticity of the Binding Update messages to
   correspondent nodes are protected by using a keyed-hash algorithm.
   The binding management key, Kbm, is used to key the hash algorithm
   for this purpose.  Kbm is established using data exchanged during the
   return routability procedure.  The data exchange is accomplished by
   use of node keys, nonces, cookies, tokens, and certain cryptographic
   functions.  <a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a> outlines the basic return routability
   procedure.  <a href="#section-5.2.6">Section 5.2.6</a> shows how the results of this procedure are
   used to authorize a Binding Update to a correspondent node.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.1" href="#section-5.2.1">5.2.1</a>.  Node Keys</span>

   Each correspondent node has a secret key, Kcn, called the "node key",
   which it uses to produce the keygen tokens sent to the mobile nodes.
   The node key MUST be a random number, 20 octets in length.  The node
   key allows the correspondent node to verify that the keygen tokens
   used by the mobile node in authorizing a Binding Update are indeed
   its own.  This key MUST NOT be shared with any other entity.

   A correspondent node MAY generate a fresh node key at any time; this
   avoids the need for secure persistent key storage.  Procedures for
   optionally updating the node key are discussed later in
   <a href="#section-5.2.7">Section 5.2.7</a>.










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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.2" href="#section-5.2.2">5.2.2</a>.  Nonces</span>

   Each correspondent node also generates nonces at regular intervals.
   The nonces should be generated by using a random number generator
   that is known to have good randomness properties [<a href="#ref-14" title="&quot;Randomness Requirements for Security&quot;">14</a>].  A
   correspondent node may use the same Kcn and nonce with all the mobile
   nodes with which it is in communication.

   Each nonce is identified by a nonce index.  When a new nonce is
   generated, it must be associated with a new nonce index; this may be
   done, for example, by incrementing the value of the previous nonce
   index, if the nonce index is used as an array pointer into a linear
   array of nonces.  However, there is no requirement that nonces be
   stored that way, or that the values of subsequent nonce indices have
   any particular relationship to each other.  The index value is
   communicated in the protocol, so that if a nonce is replaced by a new
   nonce during the run of a protocol, the correspondent node can
   distinguish messages that should be checked against the old nonce
   from messages that should be checked against the new nonce.  Strictly
   speaking, indices are not necessary in the authentication, but allow
   the correspondent node to efficiently find the nonce value that it
   used in creating a keygen token.

   Correspondent nodes keep both the current nonce and a small set of
   valid previous nonces whose lifetime has not yet expired.  Expired
   values MUST be discarded, and messages using stale or unknown indices
   will be rejected.

   The specific nonce index values cannot be used by mobile nodes to
   determine the validity of the nonce.  Expected validity times for the
   nonces values and the procedures for updating them are discussed
   later in <a href="#section-5.2.7">Section 5.2.7</a>.

   A nonce is an octet string of any length.  The recommended length is
   64 bits.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.3" href="#section-5.2.3">5.2.3</a>.  Cookies and Tokens</span>

   The return routability address test procedure uses cookies and keygen
   tokens as opaque values within the test init and test messages,
   respectively.

   o  The "home init cookie" and "care-of init cookie" are 64-bit values
      sent to the correspondent node from the mobile node, and later
      returned to the mobile node.  The home init cookie is sent in the
      Home Test Init message, and returned in the Home Test message.
      The care-of init cookie is sent in the Care-of Test Init message,
      and returned in the Care-of Test message.



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   o  The "home keygen token" and "care-of keygen token" are 64-bit
      values sent by the correspondent node to the mobile node via the
      home agent (via the Home Test message) and the care-of address (by
      the Care-of Test message), respectively.

   The mobile node should set the home init or care-of init cookie to a
   newly generated random number in every Home or Care-of Test Init
   message it sends.  The cookies are used to verify that the Home Test
   or Care-of Test message matches the Home Test Init or Care-of Test
   Init message, respectively.  These cookies also serve to ensure that
   parties who have not seen the request cannot spoof responses.

   Home and care-of keygen tokens are produced by the correspondent node
   based on its currently active secret key (Kcn) and nonces, as well as
   the home or care-of address (respectively).  A keygen token is valid
   as long as both the secret key (Kcn) and the nonce used to create it
   are valid.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.4" href="#section-5.2.4">5.2.4</a>.  Cryptographic Functions</span>

   By default in this specification, the function used to compute hash
   values is SHA-1 [<a href="#ref-11" title="&quot;Secure Hash Standard&quot;">11</a>], which is considered to offer sufficient
   protection for Mobile IPv6 control messages (see <a href="#section-15.10">Section 15.10</a>).
   Message Authentication Codes (MACs) are then computed using HMAC_SHA1
   [<a href="#ref-1" title="&quot;HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication&quot;">1</a>][11].  HMAC_SHA1(K,m) denotes such a MAC computed on message m
   with key K.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.5" href="#section-5.2.5">5.2.5</a>.  Return Routability Procedure</span>

   The return routability procedure enables the correspondent node to
   obtain some reasonable assurance that the mobile node is in fact
   addressable at its claimed care-of address as well as at its home
   address.  Only with this assurance is the correspondent node able to
   accept Binding Updates from the mobile node, which would then
   instruct the correspondent node to direct that mobile node's data
   traffic to its claimed care-of address.

   This is done by testing whether packets addressed to the two claimed
   addresses are routed to the mobile node.  The mobile node can pass
   the test only if it is able to supply proof that it received certain
   data (the "keygen tokens") that the correspondent node sends to those
   addresses.  These data are combined by the mobile node into a binding
   management key, denoted Kbm.

   The figure below shows the message flow for the return routability
   procedure.





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    Mobile node                 Home agent           Correspondent node
         |                                                     |
         |  Home Test Init (HoTI)   |                          |
         |-------------------------&gt;|-------------------------&gt;|
         |                          |                          |
         |  Care-of Test Init (CoTI)                           |
         |----------------------------------------------------&gt;|
         |                                                     |
         |                          |  Home Test (HoT)         |
         |&lt;-------------------------|&lt;-------------------------|
         |                          |                          |
         |                             Care-of Test (CoT)      |
         |&lt;----------------------------------------------------|
         |                                                     |

   The Home and Care-of Test Init messages are sent at the same time.
   The procedure requires very little processing at the correspondent
   node, and the Home and Care-of Test messages can be returned quickly,
   perhaps nearly simultaneously.  These four messages form the return
   routability procedure.

   Home Test Init

      A mobile node sends a Home Test Init message to the correspondent
      node (via the home agent) to acquire the home keygen token.  The
      contents of the message can be summarized as follows:

      *  Source Address = home address

      *  Destination Address = correspondent

      *  Parameters:

         +  home init cookie

      The Home Test Init message conveys the mobile node's home address
      to the correspondent node.  The mobile node also sends along a
      home init cookie that the correspondent node must return later.
      The Home Test Init message is reverse tunneled through the home
      agent.  (The headers and addresses related to reverse tunneling
      have been omitted from the above discussion of the message
      contents.)  The mobile node remembers these cookie values to
      obtain some assurance that its protocol messages are being
      processed by the desired correspondent node.







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   Care-of Test Init

      The mobile node sends a Care-of Test Init message to the
      correspondent node (directly, not via the home agent) to acquire
      the care-of keygen token.  The contents of this message can be
      summarized as follows:

      *  Source Address = care-of address

      *  Destination Address = correspondent

      *  Parameters:

         +  care-of init cookie

      The Care-of Test Init message conveys the mobile node's care-of
      address to the correspondent node.  The mobile node also sends
      along a care-of init cookie that the correspondent node must
      return later.  The Care-of Test Init message is sent directly to
      the correspondent node.

   Home Test

      The Home Test message is sent in response to a Home Test Init
      message.  It is sent via the home agent.  The contents of the
      message are:

      *  Source Address = correspondent

      *  Destination Address = home address

      *  Parameters:

         +  home init cookie

         +  home keygen token

         +  home nonce index

      When the correspondent node receives the Home Test Init message,
      it generates a home keygen token as follows:

       home keygen token :=
            First (64, HMAC_SHA1 (Kcn, (home address | nonce | 0)))

   where | denotes concatenation.  The final "0" inside the HMAC_SHA1
   function is a single zero octet, used to distinguish home and care-of
   cookies from each other.



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   The home keygen token is formed from the first 64 bits of the MAC.
   The home keygen token tests that the mobile node can receive messages
   sent to its home address.  Kcn is used in the production of home
   keygen token in order to allow the correspondent node to verify that
   it generated the home and care-of nonces, without forcing the
   correspondent node to remember a list of all tokens it has handed
   out.

   The Home Test message is sent to the mobile node via the home
   network, where it is presumed that the home agent will tunnel the
   message to the mobile node.  This means that the mobile node needs to
   already have sent a Binding Update to the home agent, so that the
   home agent will have received and authorized the new care-of address
   for the mobile node before the return routability procedure.  For
   improved security, the data passed between the home agent and the
   mobile node is made immune to inspection and passive attacks.  Such
   protection is gained by encrypting the home keygen token as it is
   tunneled from the home agent to the mobile node as specified in
   <a href="#section-10.4.6">Section 10.4.6</a>.  The security properties of this additional security
   are discussed in <a href="#section-15.4.1">Section 15.4.1</a>.

   The home init cookie from the mobile node is returned in the Home
   Test message, to ensure that the message comes from a node on the
   route between the home agent and the correspondent node.

   The home nonce index is delivered to the mobile node to later allow
   the correspondent node to efficiently find the nonce value that it
   used in creating the home keygen token.

   Care-of Test

      This message is sent in response to a Care-of Test Init message.
      This message is not sent via the home agent; it is sent directly
      to the mobile node.  The contents of the message are:

      *  Source Address = correspondent

      *  Destination Address = care-of address

      *  Parameters:

         +  care-of init cookie

         +  care-of keygen token

         +  care-of nonce index





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      When the correspondent node receives the Care-of Test Init
      message, it generates a care-of keygen token as follows:

       care-of keygen token :=
           First (64, HMAC_SHA1 (Kcn, (care-of address | nonce | 1)))

   Here, the final "1" inside the HMAC_SHA1 function is a single octet
   containing the hex value 0x01, and is used to distinguish home and
   care-of cookies from each other.  The keygen token is formed from the
   first 64 bits of the MAC, and sent directly to the mobile node at its
   care-of address.  The care-of init cookie from the Care-of Test Init
   message is returned to ensure that the message comes from a node on
   the route to the correspondent node.

   The care-of nonce index is provided to identify the nonce used for
   the care-of keygen token.  The home and care-of nonce indices MAY be
   the same, or different, in the Home and Care-of Test messages.

   When the mobile node has received both the Home and Care-of Test
   messages, the return routability procedure is complete.  As a result
   of the procedure, the mobile node has the data it needs to send a
   Binding Update to the correspondent node.  The mobile node hashes the
   tokens together to form a 20-octet binding key Kbm:

       Kbm = SHA-1 (home keygen token | care-of keygen token)

   A Binding Update may also be used to delete a previously established
   binding (<a href="#section-6.1.7">Section 6.1.7</a>).  In this case, the care-of keygen token is
   not used.  Instead, the binding management key is generated as
   follows:

       Kbm = SHA-1(home keygen token)

   Note that the correspondent node does not create any state specific
   to the mobile node, until it receives the Binding Update from that
   mobile node.  The correspondent node does not maintain the value for
   the binding management key Kbm; it creates Kbm when given the nonce
   indices and the mobile node's addresses.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.6" href="#section-5.2.6">5.2.6</a>.  Authorizing Binding Management Messages</span>

   After the mobile node has created the binding management key (Kbm),
   it can supply a verifiable Binding Update to the correspondent node.
   This section provides an overview of this registration.  The figure
   below shows the message flow.






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     Mobile node                                Correspondent node
          |                                               |
          |             Binding Update (BU)               |
          |----------------------------------------------&gt;|
          |  (MAC, seq#, nonce indices, care-of address)  |
          |                                               |
          |                                               |
          |    Binding Acknowledgement (BA) (if sent)     |
          |&lt;----------------------------------------------|
          |              (MAC, seq#, status)              |

   Binding Update

      To authorize a Binding Update, the mobile node creates a binding
      management key Kbm from the keygen tokens as described in the
      previous section.  The contents of the Binding Update include the
      following:

      *  Source Address = care-of address

      *  Destination Address = correspondent

      *  Parameters:

         +  home address (within the Home Address destination option if
            different from the Source Address)

         +  sequence number (within the Binding Update message header)

         +  home nonce index (within the Nonce Indices option)

         +  care-of nonce index (within the Nonce Indices option)

         +  First (96, HMAC_SHA1 (Kbm, (care-of address | correspondent
            | BU)))

      The Binding Update contains a Nonce Indices option, indicating to
      the correspondent node which home and care-of nonces to use to
      recompute Kbm, the binding management key.  The MAC is computed as
      described in <a href="#section-6.2.7">Section 6.2.7</a>, using the correspondent node's address
      as the destination address and the Binding Update message itself
      ("BU" above) as the Mobility Header (MH) Data.

      Once the correspondent node has verified the MAC, it can create a
      Binding Cache entry for the mobile.






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   Binding Acknowledgement

      The Binding Update is in some cases acknowledged by the
      correspondent node.  The contents of the message are as follows:

      *  Source Address = correspondent

      *  Destination Address = care-of address

      *  Parameters:

         +  sequence number (within the Binding Update message header)

         +  First (96, HMAC_SHA1 (Kbm, (care-of address | correspondent
            | BA)))

      The Binding Acknowledgement contains the same sequence number as
      the Binding Update.  The MAC is computed as described in
      <a href="#section-6.2.7">Section 6.2.7</a>, using the correspondent node's address as the
      destination address and the message itself ("BA" above) as the MH
      Data.

   Bindings established with correspondent nodes using keys created by
   way of the return routability procedure MUST NOT exceed
   MAX_RR_BINDING_LIFETIME seconds (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>).

   The value in the Source Address field in the IPv6 header carrying the
   Binding Update is normally also the care-of address that is used in
   the binding.  However, a different care-of address MAY be specified
   by including an Alternate Care-of Address mobility option in the
   Binding Update (see <a href="#section-6.2.5">Section 6.2.5</a>).  When such a message is sent to
   the correspondent node and the return routability procedure is used
   as the authorization method, the Care-of Test Init and Care-of Test
   messages MUST have been performed for the address in the Alternate
   Care-of Address option (not the Source Address).  The nonce indices
   and MAC value MUST be based on information gained in this test.

   Binding Updates may also be sent to delete a previously established
   binding.  In this case, generation of the binding management key
   depends exclusively on the home keygen token and the care-of nonce
   index is ignored.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.7" href="#section-5.2.7">5.2.7</a>.  Updating Node Keys and Nonces</span>

   Correspondent nodes generate nonces at regular intervals.  It is
   recommended to keep each nonce (identified by a nonce index)
   acceptable for at least MAX_TOKEN_LIFETIME seconds (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>)
   after it has been first used in constructing a return routability



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   message response.  However, the correspondent node MUST NOT accept
   nonces beyond MAX_NONCE_LIFETIME seconds (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>) after the
   first use.  As the difference between these two constants is 30
   seconds, a convenient way to enforce the above lifetimes is to
   generate a new nonce every 30 seconds.  The node can then continue to
   accept tokens that have been based on the last 8 (MAX_NONCE_LIFETIME
   / 30) nonces.  This results in tokens being acceptable
   MAX_TOKEN_LIFETIME to MAX_NONCE_LIFETIME seconds after they have been
   sent to the mobile node, depending on whether the token was sent at
   the beginning or end of the first 30-second period.  Note that the
   correspondent node may also attempt to generate new nonces on demand,
   or only if the old nonces have been used.  This is possible, as long
   as the correspondent node keeps track of how long a time ago the
   nonces were used for the first time, and does not generate new nonces
   on every return routability request.

   Due to resource limitations, rapid deletion of bindings, or reboots
   the correspondent node may not in all cases recognize the nonces that
   the tokens were based on.  If a nonce index is unrecognized, the
   correspondent node replies with an error code in the Binding
   Acknowledgement (either 136, 137, or 138 as discussed in
   <a href="#section-6.1.8">Section 6.1.8</a>).  The mobile node can then retry the return
   routability procedure.

   An update of Kcn SHOULD be done at the same time as an update of a
   nonce, so that nonce indices can identify both the nonce and the key.
   Old Kcn values have to be therefore remembered as long as old nonce
   values.

   Given that the tokens are normally expected to be usable for
   MAX_TOKEN_LIFETIME seconds, the mobile node MAY use them beyond a
   single run of the return routability procedure until
   MAX_TOKEN_LIFETIME expires.  After this the mobile node SHOULD NOT
   use the tokens.  A fast moving mobile node MAY reuse a recent home
   keygen token from a correspondent node when moving to a new location,
   and just acquire a new care-of keygen token to show routability in
   the new location.

   While this does not save the number of round-trips due to the
   simultaneous processing of home and care-of return routability tests,
   there are fewer messages being exchanged, and a potentially long
   round-trip through the home agent is avoided.  Consequently, this
   optimization is often useful.  A mobile node that has multiple home
   addresses MAY also use the same care-of keygen token for Binding
   Updates concerning all of these addresses.






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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.8" href="#section-5.2.8">5.2.8</a>.  Preventing Replay Attacks</span>

   The return routability procedure also protects the participants
   against replayed Binding Updates through the use of the sequence
   number and a MAC.  Care must be taken when removing bindings at the
   correspondent node, however.  Correspondent nodes must retain
   bindings and the associated sequence number information at least as
   long as the nonces used in the authorization of the binding are still
   valid.  Alternatively, if memory is very constrained, the
   correspondent node MAY invalidate the nonces that were used for the
   binding being deleted (or some larger group of nonces that they
   belong to).  This may, however, impact the ability to accept Binding
   Updates from mobile nodes that have recently received keygen tokens.
   This alternative is therefore recommended only as a last measure.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2.9" href="#section-5.2.9">5.2.9</a>.  Handling Interruptions to Return Routability</span>

   In some scenarios, such as simultaneous mobility, where both
   correspondent host and mobile host move at the same time, or in the
   case where the correspondent node reboots and loses data, route
   optimization may not complete, or relevant data in the binding cache
   might be lost.

   o  Return Routability signaling MUST be sent to the correspondent
      node's home address if it has one (i.e., not to the correspondent
      nodes care-of address if the correspondent node is also mobile).

   o  If Return Routability signaling timed out after MAX_RO_FAILURE
      attempts, the mobile node MUST revert to sending packets to the
      correspondent node's home address through its home agent.

   The mobile node may run the bidirectional tunneling in parallel with
   the return routability procedure until it is successful.  Exponential
   backoff SHOULD be used for retransmission of return routability
   messages.

   The return routability procedure may be triggered by movement of the
   mobile node or by sustained loss of end-to-end communication with a
   correspondent node (e.g., based on indications from upper layers)
   that has been using a route optimized connection to the mobile node.
   If such indications are received, the mobile node MAY revert to
   bidirectional tunneling while restarting the return routability
   procedure.








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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.3" href="#section-5.3">5.3</a>.  Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery</span>

   Dynamic home agent address discovery has been designed for use in
   deployments where security is not needed.  For this reason, no
   security solution is provided in this document for dynamic home agent
   address discovery.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.4" href="#section-5.4">5.4</a>.  Mobile Prefix Discovery</span>

   The mobile node and the home agent SHOULD use an IPsec security
   association to protect the integrity and authenticity of the Mobile
   Prefix Solicitations and Advertisements.  Both the mobile nodes and
   the home agents MUST support and SHOULD use the Encapsulating
   Security Payload (ESP) header in transport mode with a non-NULL
   payload authentication algorithm to provide data origin
   authentication, connectionless integrity, and optional anti-replay
   protection.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.5" href="#section-5.5">5.5</a>.  Payload Packets</span>

   Payload packets exchanged with mobile nodes can be protected in the
   usual manner, in the same way as stationary hosts can protect them.
   However, Mobile IPv6 introduces the Home Address destination option,
   a routing header, and tunneling headers in the payload packets.  In
   the following we define the security measures taken to protect these,
   and to prevent their use in attacks against other parties.

   This specification limits the use of the Home Address destination
   option to the situation where the correspondent node already has a
   Binding Cache entry for the given home address.  This avoids the use
   of the Home Address option in attacks described in <a href="#section-15.1">Section 15.1</a>.

   Mobile IPv6 uses a type of routing header specific to Mobile IPv6.
   This type provides the necessary functionality but does not open
   vulnerabilities discussed in <a href="#section-15.1">Section 15.1</a> and <a href="./rfc5095">RFC 5095</a> [<a href="#ref-45" title="&quot;Deprecation of Type 0 Routing Headers in IPv6&quot;">45</a>].

   Tunnels between the mobile node and the home agent are protected by
   ensuring proper use of source addresses, and optional cryptographic
   protection.  The mobile node verifies that the outer IP address
   corresponds to its home agent.  The home agent verifies that the
   outer IP address corresponds to the current location of the mobile
   node (Binding Updates sent to the home agents are secure).  The home
   agent identifies the mobile node through the source address of the
   inner packet.  (Typically, this is the home address of the mobile
   node, but it can also be a link-local address, as discussed in
   <a href="#section-10.4.2">Section 10.4.2</a>.  To recognize the latter type of addresses, the home





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   agent requires that the Link-Local Address Compatibility (L) was set
   in the Binding Update.)  These measures protect the tunnels against
   vulnerabilities discussed in <a href="#section-15.1">Section 15.1</a>.

   For traffic tunneled via the home agent, additional IPsec ESP
   encapsulation MAY be supported and used.  If multicast group
   membership control protocols or stateful address autoconfiguration
   protocols are supported, payload data protection MUST be supported.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-6" href="#section-6">6</a>.  New IPv6 Protocol, Message Types, and Destination Option</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1" href="#section-6.1">6.1</a>.  Mobility Header</span>

   The Mobility Header is an extension header used by mobile nodes,
   correspondent nodes, and home agents in all messaging related to the
   creation and management of bindings.  The subsections within this
   section describe the message types that may be sent using the
   Mobility Header.

   Mobility Header messages MUST NOT be sent with a type 2 routing
   header, except as described in <a href="#section-9.5.4">Section 9.5.4</a> for Binding
   Acknowledgement.  Mobility Header messages also MUST NOT be used with
   a Home Address destination option, except as described in Sections
   11.7.1 and 11.7.2 for Binding Update.  Binding Update List or Binding
   Cache information (when present) for the destination MUST NOT be used
   in sending Mobility Header messages.  That is, Mobility Header
   messages bypass both the Binding Cache check described in
   <a href="#section-9.3.2">Section 9.3.2</a> and the Binding Update List check described in
   <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a> that are normally performed for all packets.  This
   applies even to messages sent to or from a correspondent node that is
   itself a mobile node.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.1" href="#section-6.1.1">6.1.1</a>.  Format</span>

   The Mobility Header is identified by a Next Header value of 135 in
   the immediately preceding header, and has the following format:

       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       | Payload Proto |  Header Len   |   MH Type     |   Reserved    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |           Checksum            |                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+                               |
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                       Message Data                            .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+



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   Payload Proto

      8-bit selector.  Identifies the type of header immediately
      following the Mobility Header.  Uses the same values as the IPv6
      Next Header field [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].

      This field is intended to be used by a future extension (see
      <a href="#appendix-A.1">Appendix A.1</a>).

      Implementations conforming to this specification SHOULD set the
      payload protocol type to IPPROTO_NONE (59 decimal).

   Header Len

      8-bit unsigned integer, representing the length of the Mobility
      Header in units of 8 octets, excluding the first 8 octets.

      The length of the Mobility Header MUST be a multiple of 8 octets.

   MH Type

      8-bit selector.  Identifies the particular mobility message in
      question.  Current values are specified in <a href="#section-6.1.2">Section 6.1.2</a> and
      onward.  An unrecognized MH Type field causes an error indication
      to be sent.

   Reserved

      8-bit field reserved for future use.  The value MUST be
      initialized to zero by the sender, and MUST be ignored by the
      receiver.

   Checksum

      16-bit unsigned integer.  This field contains the checksum of the
      Mobility Header.  The checksum is calculated from the octet string
      consisting of a "pseudo-header" followed by the entire Mobility
      Header starting with the Payload Proto field.  The checksum is the
      16-bit one's complement of the one's complement sum of this
      string.

      The pseudo-header contains IPv6 header fields, as specified in
      <a href="./rfc2460#section-8.1">Section&nbsp;8.1 of RFC 2460</a> [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].  The Next Header value used in the
      pseudo-header is 135.  The addresses used in the pseudo-header are
      the addresses that appear in the Source and Destination Address
      fields in the IPv6 packet carrying the Mobility Header.





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      Note that the procedures of calculating upper-layer checksums
      while away from home described in <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a> apply even for
      the Mobility Header.  If a mobility message has a Home Address
      destination option, then the checksum calculation uses the home
      address in this option as the value of the IPv6 Source Address
      field.  The type 2 routing header is treated as explained in [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].

      The Mobility Header is considered as the upper-layer protocol for
      the purposes of calculating the pseudo-header.  The Upper-Layer
      Packet Length field in the pseudo-header MUST be set to the total
      length of the Mobility Header.

      For computing the checksum, the checksum field is set to zero.

   Message Data

      A variable-length field containing the data specific to the
      indicated Mobility Header type.

   Mobile IPv6 also defines a number of "mobility options" for use
   within these messages; if included, any options MUST appear after the
   fixed portion of the message data specified in this document.  The
   presence of such options will be indicated by the Header Len field
   within the message.  When the Header Len value is greater than the
   length required for the message specified here, the remaining octets
   are interpreted as mobility options.  These options include padding
   options that can be used to ensure that other options are aligned
   properly, and that the total length of the message is divisible by 8.
   The encoding and format of defined options are described in
   <a href="#section-6.2">Section 6.2</a>.

   Alignment requirements for the Mobility Header are the same as for
   any IPv6 protocol header.  That is, they MUST be aligned on an
   8-octet boundary.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.2" href="#section-6.1.2">6.1.2</a>.  Binding Refresh Request Message</span>

   The Binding Refresh Request (BRR) message requests a mobile node to
   update its mobility binding.  This message is sent by correspondent
   nodes according to the rules in <a href="#section-9.5.5">Section 9.5.5</a>.  When a mobile node
   receives a packet containing a Binding Refresh Request message it
   processes the message according to the rules in <a href="#section-11.7.4">Section 11.7.4</a>.

   The Binding Refresh Request message uses the MH Type value 0.  When
   this value is indicated in the MH Type field, the format of the
   Message Data field in the Mobility Header is as follows:





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                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |          Reserved             |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Reserved

      16-bit field reserved for future use.  The value MUST be
      initialized to zero by the sender, and MUST be ignored by the
      receiver.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The encoding
      and format of defined options are described in <a href="#section-6.2">Section 6.2</a>.  The
      receiver MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not
      understand.

      There MAY be additional information, associated with this Binding
      Refresh Request message that need not be present in all Binding
      Refresh Request messages sent.  Mobility options allow future
      extensions to the format of the Binding Refresh Request message to
      be defined.  This specification does not define any options valid
      for the Binding Refresh Request message.

   If no actual options are present in this message, no padding is
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 0.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.3" href="#section-6.1.3">6.1.3</a>.  Home Test Init Message</span>

   A mobile node uses the Home Test Init (HoTI) message to initiate the
   return routability procedure and request a home keygen token from a
   correspondent node (see <a href="#section-11.6.1">Section 11.6.1</a>).  The Home Test Init message
   uses the MH Type value 1.  When this value is indicated in the MH
   Type field, the format of the Message Data field in the Mobility
   Header is as follows:








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                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |           Reserved            |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                       Home Init Cookie                        +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                       Mobility Options                        .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Reserved

      16-bit field reserved for future use.  This value MUST be
      initialized to zero by the sender, and MUST be ignored by the
      receiver.

   Home Init Cookie

      64-bit field that contains a random value, the home init cookie.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The receiver
      MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not understand.
      This specification does not define any options valid for the Home
      Test Init message.

   If no actual options are present in this message, no padding is
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 1.

   This message is tunneled through the home agent when the mobile node
   is away from home.  Such tunneling SHOULD employ IPsec ESP in tunnel
   mode between the home agent and the mobile node.  This protection is
   indicated by the IPsec security policy database.  The protection of
   Home Test Init messages is unrelated to the requirement to protect
   regular payload traffic, which MAY use such tunnels as well.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.4" href="#section-6.1.4">6.1.4</a>.  Care-of Test Init Message</span>

   A mobile node uses the Care-of Test Init (CoTI) message to initiate
   the return routability procedure and request a care-of keygen token
   from a correspondent node (see <a href="#section-11.6.1">Section 11.6.1</a>).  The Care-of Test



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   Init message uses the MH Type value 2.  When this value is indicated
   in the MH Type field, the format of the Message Data field in the
   Mobility Header is as follows:

                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |           Reserved            |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                      Care-of Init Cookie                      +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Reserved

      16-bit field reserved for future use.  The value MUST be
      initialized to zero by the sender, and MUST be ignored by the
      receiver.

   Care-of Init Cookie

      64-bit field that contains a random value, the care-of init
      cookie.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The receiver
      MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not understand.
      This specification does not define any options valid for the
      Care-of Test Init message.

   If no actual options are present in this message, no padding is
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 1.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.5" href="#section-6.1.5">6.1.5</a>.  Home Test Message</span>

   The Home Test (HoT) message is a response to the Home Test Init
   message, and is sent from the correspondent node to the mobile node
   (see <a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>).  The Home Test message uses the MH Type value 3.
   When this value is indicated in the MH Type field, the format of the
   Message Data field in the Mobility Header is as follows:



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                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |       Home Nonce Index        |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                        Home Init Cookie                       +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                       Home Keygen Token                       +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Home Nonce Index

      This field will be echoed back by the mobile node to the
      correspondent node in a subsequent Binding Update.

   Home Init Cookie

      64-bit field that contains the home init cookie.

   Home Keygen Token

      This field contains the 64-bit home keygen token used in the
      return routability procedure.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The receiver
      MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not understand.
      This specification does not define any options valid for the Home
      Test message.

   If no actual options are present in this message, no padding is
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 2.








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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.6" href="#section-6.1.6">6.1.6</a>.  Care-of Test Message</span>

   The Care-of Test (CoT) message is a response to the Care-of Test Init
   message, and is sent from the correspondent node to the mobile node
   (see <a href="#section-11.6.2">Section 11.6.2</a>).  The Care-of Test message uses the MH Type
   value 4.  When this value is indicated in the MH Type field, the
   format of the Message Data field in the Mobility Header is as
   follows:

                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |      Care-of Nonce Index      |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                      Care-of Init Cookie                      +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                     Care-of Keygen Token                      +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Care-of Nonce Index

      This value will be echoed back by the mobile node to the
      correspondent node in a subsequent Binding Update.

   Care-of Init Cookie

      64-bit field that contains the care-of init cookie.

   Care-of Keygen Token

      This field contains the 64-bit care-of keygen token used in the
      return routability procedure.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The receiver





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      MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not understand.
      This specification does not define any options valid for the
      Care-of Test message.

   If no actual options are present in this message, no padding is
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 2.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.7" href="#section-6.1.7">6.1.7</a>.  Binding Update Message</span>

   The Binding Update (BU) message is used by a mobile node to notify
   other nodes of a new care-of address for itself.  Binding Updates are
   sent as described in Sections <a href="#section-11.7.1">11.7.1</a> and <a href="#section-11.7.2">11.7.2</a>.

   The Binding Update uses the MH Type value 5.  When this value is
   indicated in the MH Type field, the format of the Message Data field
   in the Mobility Header is as follows:

                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |          Sequence #           |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |A|H|L|K|        Reserved       |           Lifetime            |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Acknowledge (A)

      The Acknowledge (A) bit is set by the sending mobile node to
      request a Binding Acknowledgement (<a href="#section-6.1.8">Section 6.1.8</a>) be returned upon
      receipt of the Binding Update.

   Home Registration (H)

      The Home Registration (H) bit is set by the sending mobile node to
      request that the receiving node should act as this node's home
      agent.  The destination of the packet carrying this message MUST
      be that of a router sharing the same subnet prefix as the home
      address of the mobile node in the binding.

   Link-Local Address Compatibility (L)

      The Link-Local Address Compatibility (L) bit is set when the home
      address reported by the mobile node has the same interface
      identifier as the mobile node's link-local address.



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   Key Management Mobility Capability (K)

      If this bit is cleared, the protocol used for establishing the
      IPsec security associations between the mobile node and the home
      agent does not survive movements.  It may then have to be rerun.
      (Note that the IPsec security associations themselves are expected
      to survive movements.)  If manual IPsec configuration is used, the
      bit MUST be cleared.

      This bit is valid only in Binding Updates sent to the home agent,
      and MUST be cleared in other Binding Updates.  Correspondent nodes
      MUST ignore this bit.

   Reserved

      These fields are unused.  They MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   Sequence #

      A 16-bit unsigned integer used by the receiving node to sequence
      Binding Updates and by the sending node to match a returned
      Binding Acknowledgement with this Binding Update.

   Lifetime

      16-bit unsigned integer.  The number of time units remaining
      before the binding MUST be considered expired.  A value of zero
      indicates that the Binding Cache entry for the mobile node MUST be
      deleted.  One time unit is 4 seconds.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The encoding
      and format of defined options are described in <a href="#section-6.2">Section 6.2</a>.  The
      receiver MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not
      understand.

      The following options are valid in a Binding Update:

      *  Binding Authorization Data option (this option is mandatory in
         Binding Updates sent to a correspondent node)

      *  Nonce Indices option

      *  Alternate Care-of Address option



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   If no options are present in this message, 4 octets of padding are
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 1.

   The care-of address is specified either by the Source Address field
   in the IPv6 header or by the Alternate Care-of Address option, if
   present.  The care-of address MUST be a unicast routable address.
   IPv6 Source Address MUST be a topologically correct source address.
   Binding Updates for a care-of address that is not a unicast routable
   address MUST be silently discarded.

   The deletion of a binding MUST be indicated by setting the Lifetime
   field to 0.  In deletion, the generation of the binding management
   key depends exclusively on the home keygen token, as explained in
   <a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>.

   Correspondent nodes SHOULD NOT delete the Binding Cache entry before
   the lifetime expires, if any application hosted by the correspondent
   node is still likely to require communication with the mobile node.
   A Binding Cache entry that is de-allocated prematurely might cause
   subsequent packets to be dropped from the mobile node, if they
   contain the Home Address destination option.  This situation is
   recoverable, since a Binding Error message is sent to the mobile node
   (see <a href="#section-6.1.9">Section 6.1.9</a>); however, it causes unnecessary delay in the
   communications.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.8" href="#section-6.1.8">6.1.8</a>.  Binding Acknowledgement Message</span>

   The Binding Acknowledgement is used to acknowledge receipt of a
   Binding Update (<a href="#section-6.1.7">Section 6.1.7</a>).  This packet is sent as described in
   Sections <a href="#section-9.5.4">9.5.4</a> and <a href="#section-10.3.1">10.3.1</a>.

   The Binding Acknowledgement has the MH Type value 6.  When this value
   is indicated in the MH Type field, the format of the Message Data
   field in the Mobility Header is as follows:

                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |    Status     |K|  Reserved   |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |           Sequence #          |           Lifetime            |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+





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   Status

      8-bit unsigned integer indicating the disposition of the Binding
      Update.  Values of the Status field less than 128 indicate that
      the Binding Update was accepted by the receiving node.  Values
      greater than or equal to 128 indicate that the Binding Update was
      rejected by the receiving node.  The following Status values are
      currently defined:

           0  Binding Update accepted

           1  Accepted but prefix discovery necessary

         128  Reason unspecified

         129  Administratively prohibited

         130  Insufficient resources

         131  Home registration not supported

         132  Not home subnet

         133  Not home agent for this mobile node

         134  Duplicate Address Detection failed

         135  Sequence number out of window

         136  Expired home nonce index

         137  Expired care-of nonce index

         138  Expired nonces

         139  Registration type change disallowed

         174  Invalid Care-of Address

      Up-to-date values of the Status field are to be specified in the
      IANA registry of assigned numbers [<a href="#ref-30" title="&quot;Assigned Numbers: RFC 1700 is Replaced by an On- line Database&quot;">30</a>].










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   Key Management Mobility Capability (K)

      If this bit is cleared, the protocol used by the home agent for
      establishing the IPsec security associations between the mobile
      node and the home agent does not survive movements.  It may then
      have to be rerun.  (Note that the IPsec security associations
      themselves are expected to survive movements.)

      Correspondent nodes MUST set the K bit to 0.

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   Sequence #

      The Sequence Number in the Binding Acknowledgement is copied from
      the Sequence Number field in the Binding Update.  It is used by
      the mobile node in matching this Binding Acknowledgement with an
      outstanding Binding Update.

   Lifetime

      The granted lifetime, in time units of 4 seconds, for which this
      node SHOULD retain the entry for this mobile node in its Binding
      Cache.

      The value of this field is undefined if the Status field indicates
      that the Binding Update was rejected.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The encoding
      and format of defined options are described in <a href="#section-6.2">Section 6.2</a>.  The
      receiver MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not
      understand.

      There MAY be additional information associated with this Binding
      Acknowledgement that need not be present in all Binding
      Acknowledgements sent.  Mobility options allow future extensions
      to the format of the Binding Acknowledgement to be defined.  The
      following options are valid for the Binding Acknowledgement:






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      *  Binding Authorization Data option (this option is mandatory in
         Binding Acknowledgements sent by a correspondent node, except
         where otherwise noted in <a href="#section-9.5.4">Section 9.5.4</a>)

      *  Binding Refresh Advice option

   If no options are present in this message, 4 octets of padding are
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 1.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.1.9" href="#section-6.1.9">6.1.9</a>.  Binding Error Message</span>

   The Binding Error (BE) message is used by the correspondent node to
   signal an error related to mobility, such as an inappropriate attempt
   to use the Home Address destination option without an existing
   binding; see <a href="#section-9.3.3">Section 9.3.3</a> for details.

   The Binding Error message uses the MH Type value 7.  When this value
   is indicated in the MH Type field, the format of the Message Data
   field in the Mobility Header is as follows:

                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |     Status    |   Reserved    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +                          Home Address                         +
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       .                                                               .
       .                        Mobility Options                       .
       .                                                               .
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Status

      8-bit unsigned integer indicating the reason for this message.
      The following values are currently defined:

           1  Unknown binding for Home Address destination option

           2  Unrecognized MH Type value






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   Reserved

      8-bit field reserved for future use.  The value MUST be
      initialized to zero by the sender, and MUST be ignored by the
      receiver.

   Home Address

      The home address that was contained in the Home Address
      destination option.  The mobile node uses this information to
      determine which binding does not exist, in cases where the mobile
      node has several home addresses.

   Mobility Options

      Variable-length field of such length that the complete Mobility
      Header is an integer multiple of 8 octets long.  This field
      contains zero or more TLV-encoded mobility options.  The receiver
      MUST ignore and skip any options that it does not understand.
      There MAY be additional information associated with this Binding
      Error message that need not be present in all Binding Error
      messages sent.  Mobility options allow future extensions to the
      format of the Binding Error message to be defined.  The encoding
      and format of defined options are described in <a href="#section-6.2">Section 6.2</a>.  This
      specification does not define any options valid for the Binding
      Error message.

   If no actual options are present in this message, no padding is
   necessary and the Header Len field will be set to 2.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2" href="#section-6.2">6.2</a>.  Mobility Options</span>

   Mobility messages can include zero or more mobility options.  This
   allows optional fields that may not be needed in every use of a
   particular Mobility Header, as well as future extensions to the
   format of the messages.  Such options are included in the Message
   Data field of the message itself, after the fixed portion of the
   message data specified in the message subsections of <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>.

   The presence of such options will be indicated by the Header Len of
   the Mobility Header.  If included, the Binding Authorization Data
   option (<a href="#section-6.2.7">Section 6.2.7</a>) MUST be the last option and MUST NOT have
   trailing padding.  Otherwise, options can be placed in any order.








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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.1" href="#section-6.2.1">6.2.1</a>.  Format</span>

   Mobility options are encoded within the remaining space of the
   Message Data field of a mobility message, using a type-length-value
   (TLV) format as follows:

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |  Option Type  | Option Length |   Option Data...
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Option Type

      8-bit identifier of the type of mobility option.  When processing
      a Mobility Header containing an option for which the Option Type
      value is not recognized by the receiver, the receiver MUST quietly
      ignore and skip over the option, correctly handling any remaining
      options in the message.

   Option Length

      8-bit unsigned integer, representing the length in octets of the
      mobility option, not including the Option Type and Option Length
      fields.

   Option Data

      A variable-length field that contains data specific to the option.

   The following subsections specify the Option types that are currently
   defined for use in the Mobility Header.

   Implementations MUST silently ignore any mobility options that they
   do not understand.

   Mobility options may have alignment requirements.  Following the
   convention in IPv6, these options are aligned in a packet so that
   multi-octet values within the Option Data field of each option fall
   on natural boundaries (i.e., fields of width n octets are placed at
   an integer multiple of n octets from the start of the header, for n =
   1, 2, 4, or 8) [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.2" href="#section-6.2.2">6.2.2</a>.  Pad1</span>

   The Pad1 option does not have any alignment requirements.  Its format
   is as follows:




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        0
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |   Type = 0    |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   NOTE! the format of the Pad1 option is a special case -- it has
   neither Option Length nor Option Data fields.

   The Pad1 option is used to insert one octet of padding in the
   Mobility Options area of a Mobility Header.  If more than one octet
   of padding is required, the PadN option, described next, should be
   used rather than multiple Pad1 options.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.3" href="#section-6.2.3">6.2.3</a>.  PadN</span>

   The PadN option does not have any alignment requirements.  Its format
   is as follows:

        0                   1
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- - - - - - - - -
       |   Type = 1    | Option Length | Option Data
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- - - - - - - - -

   The PadN option is used to insert two or more octets of padding in
   the Mobility Options area of a mobility message.  For N octets of
   padding, the Option Length field contains the value N-2, and the
   Option Data consists of N-2 zero-valued octets.  PadN Option data
   MUST be ignored by the receiver.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.4" href="#section-6.2.4">6.2.4</a>.  Binding Refresh Advice</span>

   The Binding Refresh Advice option has an alignment requirement of 2n.
   Its format is as follows:

        0                   1                   2                   3
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |   Type = 2    |   Length = 2  |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |       Refresh Interval        |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The Binding Refresh Advice option is only valid in the Binding
   Acknowledgement, and only on Binding Acknowledgements sent from the
   mobile node's home agent in reply to a home registration.  The
   Refresh Interval is measured in units of four seconds, and indicates



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   remaining time until the mobile node SHOULD send a new home
   registration to the home agent.  The Refresh Interval MUST be set to
   indicate a smaller time interval than the Lifetime value of the
   Binding Acknowledgement.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.5" href="#section-6.2.5">6.2.5</a>.  Alternate Care-of Address</span>

   The Alternate Care-of Address option has an alignment requirement of
   8n + 6.  Its format is as follows:

        0                   1                   2                   3
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |   Type = 3    |  Length = 16  |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +                   Alternate Care-of Address                   +
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Normally, a Binding Update specifies the desired care-of address in
   the Source Address field of the IPv6 header.  However, this is not
   possible in some cases, such as when the mobile node wishes to
   indicate a care-of address that it cannot use as a topologically
   correct source address (Sections <a href="#section-6.1.7">6.1.7</a> and <a href="#section-11.7.2">11.7.2</a>) or when the used
   security mechanism does not protect the IPv6 header (<a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>).

   The Alternate Care-of Address option is provided for these
   situations.  This option is valid only in Binding Update.  The
   Alternate Care-of Address field contains an address to use as the
   care-of address for the binding, rather than using the Source Address
   of the packet as the care-of address.















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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.6" href="#section-6.2.6">6.2.6</a>.  Nonce Indices</span>

   The Nonce Indices option has an alignment requirement of 2n.  Its
   format is as follows:

        0                   1                   2                   3
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |   Type = 4    |   Length = 4  |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |         Home Nonce Index      |     Care-of Nonce Index       |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The Nonce Indices option is valid only in the Binding Update message
   sent to a correspondent node, and only when present together with a
   Binding Authorization Data option.  When the correspondent node
   authorizes the Binding Update, it needs to produce home and care-of
   keygen tokens from its stored random nonce values.

   The Home Nonce Index field tells the correspondent node which nonce
   value to use when producing the home keygen token.

   The Care-of Nonce Index field is ignored in requests to delete a
   binding.  Otherwise, it tells the correspondent node which nonce
   value to use when producing the care-of keygen token.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.2.7" href="#section-6.2.7">6.2.7</a>.  Binding Authorization Data</span>

   The Binding Authorization Data option does not have alignment
   requirements as such.  However, since this option must be the last
   mobility option, an implicit alignment requirement is 8n + 2.  The
   format of this option is as follows:

        0                   1                   2                   3
        0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
                                       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                       |   Type = 5    | Option Length |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                         Authenticator                         |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   The Binding Authorization Data option is valid in the Binding Update
   and Binding Acknowledgement.




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   The Option Length field contains the length of the authenticator in
   octets.

   The Authenticator field contains a cryptographic value that can be
   used to determine that the message in question comes from the right
   authority.  Rules for calculating this value depends on the used
   authorization procedure.

   For the return routability procedure, this option can appear in the
   Binding Update and Binding Acknowledgements.  Rules for calculating
   the Authenticator value are the following:

     Mobility Data = care-of address | correspondent | MH Data
     Authenticator = First (96, HMAC_SHA1 (Kbm, Mobility Data))

   Where | denotes concatenation.  "Care-of address" is the care-of
   address that will be registered for the mobile node if the Binding
   Update succeeds, or the home address of the mobile node if this
   option is used in de-registration.  Note also that this address might
   be different from the source address of the Binding Update message,
   if the Alternative Care-of Address mobility option is used, or when
   the lifetime of the binding is set to zero.

   The "correspondent" is the IPv6 address of the correspondent node.
   Note that, if the message is sent to a destination that is itself
   mobile, the "correspondent" address may not be the address found in
   the Destination Address field of the IPv6 header; instead, the home
   address from the type 2 Routing header should be used.

   "MH Data" is the content of the Mobility Header, excluding the
   Authenticator field itself.  The Authenticator value is calculated as
   if the Checksum field in the Mobility Header was zero.  The Checksum
   in the transmitted packet is still calculated in the usual manner,
   with the calculated Authenticator being a part of the packet
   protected by the Checksum.  Kbm is the binding management key, which
   is typically created using nonces provided by the correspondent node
   (see <a href="#section-9.4">Section 9.4</a>).  Note that while the contents of a potential Home
   Address destination option are not covered in this formula, the rules
   for the calculation of the Kbm do take the home address in account.
   This ensures that the MAC will be different for different home
   addresses.

   The first 96 bits from the MAC result are used as the Authenticator
   field.







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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.3" href="#section-6.3">6.3</a>.  Home Address Option</span>

   The Home Address option is carried by the Destination Option
   extension header (Next Header value = 60).  It is used in a packet
   sent by a mobile node while away from home, to inform the recipient
   of the mobile node's home address.

   The Home Address option is encoded in type-length-value (TLV) format
   as follows:

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
                                      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
                                      |  Option Type  | Option Length |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +                          Home Address                         +
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Option Type

      201 = 0xC9

   Option Length

      8-bit unsigned integer.  Length of the option, in octets,
      excluding the Option Type and Option Length fields.  This field
      MUST be set to 16.

   Home Address

      The home address of the mobile node sending the packet.  This
      address MUST be a unicast routable address.

   The alignment requirement [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>] for the Home Address option is 8n + 6.

   The three highest-order bits of the Option Type field are encoded to
   indicate specific processing of the option [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>]; for the Home Address
   option, these three bits are set to 110.  This indicates the
   following processing requirements:






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   o  Any IPv6 node that does not recognize the Option Type must discard
      the packet, and if the packet's Destination Address was not a
      multicast address, return an ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 2,
      message to the packet's Source Address.  The Pointer field in the
      ICMP message SHOULD point at the Option Type field.  Otherwise,
      for multicast addresses, the ICMP message MUST NOT be sent.

   o  The data within the option cannot change en route to the packet's
      final destination.

   The Home Address option MUST be placed as follows:

   o  After the routing header, if that header is present

   o  Before the Fragment Header, if that header is present

   o  Before the AH Header or ESP Header, if either one of those headers
      is present

   For each IPv6 packet header, the Home Address option MUST NOT appear
   more than once.  However, an encapsulated packet [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>] MAY contain a
   separate Home Address option associated with each encapsulating IP
   header.

   The inclusion of a Home Address destination option in a packet
   affects the receiving node's processing of only this single packet.
   No state is created or modified in the receiving node as a result of
   receiving a Home Address option in a packet.  In particular, the
   presence of a Home Address option in a received packet MUST NOT alter
   the contents of the receiver's Binding Cache and MUST NOT cause any
   changes in the routing of subsequent packets sent by this receiving
   node.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.4" href="#section-6.4">6.4</a>.  Type 2 Routing Header</span>

   Mobile IPv6 defines a new routing header variant, the type 2 routing
   header, to allow the packet to be routed directly from a
   correspondent to the mobile node's care-of address.  The mobile
   node's care-of address is inserted into the IPv6 Destination Address
   field.  Once the packet arrives at the care-of address, the mobile
   node retrieves its home address from the routing header, and this is
   used as the final destination address for the packet.

   The new routing header uses a different type than defined for
   "regular" IPv6 source routing, enabling firewalls to apply different
   rules to source routed packets than to Mobile IPv6.  This routing
   header type (type 2) is restricted to carry only one IPv6 address.
   All IPv6 nodes that process this routing header MUST verify that the



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   address contained within is the node's own home address in order to
   prevent packets from being forwarded outside the node.  The IP
   address contained in the routing header, since it is the mobile
   node's home address, MUST be a unicast routable address.
   Furthermore, if the scope of the home address is smaller than the
   scope of the care-of address, the mobile node MUST discard the packet
   (see <a href="#section-4.6">Section 4.6</a>).

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.4.1" href="#section-6.4.1">6.4.1</a>.  Format</span>

   The type 2 routing header has the following format:

       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |  Next Header  | Hdr Ext Len=2 | Routing Type=2|Segments Left=1|
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                            Reserved                           |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +                         Home Address                          +
       |                                                               |
       +                                                               +
       |                                                               |
       +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Next Header

      8-bit selector.  Identifies the type of header immediately
      following the routing header.  Uses the same values as the IPv6
      Next Header field [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].

   Hdr Ext Len

      2 (8-bit unsigned integer); length of the routing header in
      8-octet units, not including the first 8 octets.

   Routing Type

      2 (8-bit unsigned integer).

   Segments Left

      1 (8-bit unsigned integer).







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   Reserved

      32-bit reserved field.  The value MUST be initialized to zero by
      the sender, and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   Home Address

      The home address of the destination mobile node.

   For a type 2 routing header, the Hdr Ext Len MUST be 2.  The Segments
   Left value describes the number of route segments remaining, i.e.,
   number of explicitly listed intermediate nodes still to be visited
   before reaching the final destination.  Segments Left MUST be 1.  The
   ordering rules for extension headers in an IPv6 packet are described
   in <a href="./rfc2460#section-4.1">Section&nbsp;4.1 of RFC 2460</a> [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].  The type 2 routing header defined
   for Mobile IPv6 follows the same ordering as other routing headers.
   If another routing header is present along with a type 2 routing
   header, the type 2 routing header should follow the other routing
   header.  A packet containing such nested encapsulation should be
   created as if the inner (type 2) routing header was constructed first
   and then treated as an original packet by header construction process
   for the other routing header.

   In addition, the general procedures defined by IPv6 for routing
   headers suggest that a received routing header MAY be automatically
   "reversed" to construct a routing header for use in any response
   packets sent by upper-layer protocols, if the received packet is
   authenticated [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].  This MUST NOT be done automatically for type 2
   routing headers.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.5" href="#section-6.5">6.5</a>.  ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Request Message</span>

   The ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Request message is used by a
   mobile node to initiate the dynamic home agent address discovery
   mechanism, as described in <a href="#section-11.4.1">Section 11.4.1</a>.  The mobile node sends the
   Home Agent Address Discovery Request message to the Mobile IPv6 Home-
   Agents anycast address [<a href="#ref-8" title="&quot;Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses&quot;">8</a>] for its own home subnet prefix.  (Note
   that the currently defined anycast addresses may not work with all
   prefix lengths other than those defined in <a href="./rfc4291">RFC 4291</a> [<a href="#ref-16" title="&quot;IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture&quot;">16</a>] [<a href="#ref-37" title="&quot;Use of /127 Prefix Length Between Routers Considered Harmful&quot;">37</a>].)

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |     Code      |            Checksum           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          Identifier           |            Reserved           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+




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   Type

      144

   Code

      0

   Checksum

      The ICMP checksum [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].

   Identifier

      An identifier to aid in matching Home Agent Address Discovery
      Reply messages to this Home Agent Address Discovery Request
      message.

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   The Source Address of the Home Agent Address Discovery Request
   message packet is typically one of the mobile node's current care-of
   addresses.  At the time of performing this dynamic home agent address
   discovery procedure, it is likely that the mobile node is not
   registered with any home agent.  Therefore, neither the nature of the
   address nor the identity of the mobile node can be established at
   this time.  The home agent MUST then return the Home Agent Address
   Discovery Reply message directly to the Source Address chosen by the
   mobile node.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.6" href="#section-6.6">6.6</a>.  ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Reply Message</span>

   The ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Reply message is used by a home
   agent to respond to a mobile node that uses the dynamic home agent
   address discovery mechanism, as described in <a href="#section-10.5">Section 10.5</a>.













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       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |     Code      |            Checksum           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |           Identifier          |             Reserved          |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      .                                                               .
      .                      Home Agent Addresses                     .
      .                                                               .
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Type

      145

   Code

      0

   Checksum

      The ICMP checksum [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].

   Identifier

      The identifier from the invoking Home Agent Address Discovery
      Request message.

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   Home Agent Addresses

      A list of addresses of home agents on the home link for the mobile
      node.  The number of addresses presented in the list is indicated
      by the remaining length of the IPv6 packet carrying the Home Agent
      Address Discovery Reply message.







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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.7" href="#section-6.7">6.7</a>.  ICMP Mobile Prefix Solicitation Message Format</span>

   The ICMP Mobile Prefix Solicitation message is sent by a mobile node
   to its home agent while it is away from home.  The purpose of the
   message is to solicit a Mobile Prefix Advertisement from the home
   agent, which will allow the mobile node to gather prefix information
   about its home network.  This information can be used to configure
   and update home address(es) according to changes in prefix
   information supplied by the home agent.

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |     Code      |          Checksum             |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          Identifier           |            Reserved           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   IP Fields:

   Source Address

      The mobile node's care-of address.

   Destination Address

      The address of the mobile node's home agent.  This home agent must
      be on the link that the mobile node wishes to learn prefix
      information about.

   Hop Limit

      Set to an initial hop limit value, similarly to any other unicast
      packet sent by the mobile node.

   Destination Option:

      A Home Address destination option MUST be included.

   ESP header:

      IPsec headers MUST be supported and SHOULD be used as described in
      <a href="#section-5.4">Section 5.4</a>.

   ICMP Fields:






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   Type

      146

   Code

      0

   Checksum

      The ICMP checksum [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].

   Identifier

      An identifier to aid in matching a future Mobile Prefix
      Advertisement to this Mobile Prefix Solicitation.

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   The Mobile Prefix Solicitation messages may have options.  These
   options MUST use the option format defined in Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC</a>
   <a href="./rfc4861">4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]).  This document does not define any option types for the
   Mobile Prefix Solicitation message, but future documents may define
   new options.  Home agents MUST silently ignore any options they do
   not recognize and continue processing the message.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-6.8" href="#section-6.8">6.8</a>.  ICMP Mobile Prefix Advertisement Message Format</span>

   A home agent will send a Mobile Prefix Advertisement to a mobile node
   to distribute prefix information about the home link while the mobile
   node is traveling away from the home network.  This will occur in
   response to a Mobile Prefix Solicitation with an Advertisement, or by
   an unsolicited Advertisement sent according to the rules in
   <a href="#section-10.6">Section 10.6</a>.

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |     Code      |          Checksum             |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |          Identifier           |M|O|        Reserved           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |           Options ...
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+




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   IP Fields:

   Source Address

      The home agent's address as the mobile node would expect to see it
      (i.e., same network prefix).

   Destination Address

      If this message is a response to a Mobile Prefix Solicitation,
      this field contains the Source Address field from that packet.
      For unsolicited messages, the mobile node's care-of address SHOULD
      be used.  Note that unsolicited messages can only be sent if the
      mobile node is currently registered with the home agent.

   Routing header:

      A type 2 routing header MUST be included.

   ESP header:

      IPsec headers MUST be supported and SHOULD be used as described in
      <a href="#section-5.4">Section 5.4</a>.

   ICMP Fields:

   Type

      147

   Code

      0

   Checksum

      The ICMP checksum [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].














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   Identifier

      An identifier to aid in matching this Mobile Prefix Advertisement
      to a previous Mobile Prefix Solicitation.

   M

      1-bit Managed Address Configuration flag.  When set, hosts use the
      administered (stateful) protocol for address autoconfiguration in
      addition to any addresses autoconfigured using stateless address
      autoconfiguration.  The use of this flag is described in [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]
      [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>].

   O

      1-bit Other Stateful Configuration flag.  When set, hosts use the
      administered (stateful) protocol for autoconfiguration of other
      (non-address) information.  The use of this flag is described in
      [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>].

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   The Mobile Prefix Advertisement messages may have options.  These
   options MUST use the option format defined in Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC</a>
   <a href="./rfc4861">4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]).  This document defines one option that may be carried in
   a Mobile Prefix Advertisement message, but future documents may
   define new options.  Mobile nodes MUST silently ignore any options
   they do not recognize and continue processing the message.

   Prefix Information

      Each message contains one or more Prefix Information options.
      Each option carries the prefix(es) that the mobile node should use
      to configure its home address(es).  <a href="#section-10.6">Section 10.6</a> describes which
      prefixes should be advertised to the mobile node.

      The Prefix Information option is defined in <a href="#section-4.6.2">Section 4.6.2</a> of
      Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]), with modifications defined in
      <a href="#section-7.2">Section 7.2</a> of this specification.  The home agent MUST use this
      modified Prefix Information option to send home network prefixes
      as defined in <a href="#section-10.6.1">Section 10.6.1</a>.

   If the Advertisement is sent in response to a Mobile Prefix
   Solicitation, the home agent MUST copy the Identifier value from that
   message into the Identifier field of the Advertisement.



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   The home agent MUST NOT send more than one Mobile Prefix
   Advertisement message per second to any mobile node.

   The M and O bits MUST be cleared if the Home Agent DHCPv6 support is
   not provided.  If such support is provided, then they are set in
   concert with the home network's administrative settings.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-7" href="#section-7">7</a>.  Modifications to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-7.1" href="#section-7.1">7.1</a>.  Modified Router Advertisement Message Format</span>

   Mobile IPv6 modifies the format of the Router Advertisement message
   [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] by the addition of a single flag bit to indicate that the router
   sending the Advertisement message is serving as a home agent on this
   link.  The format of the Router Advertisement message is as follows:

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |     Code      |          Checksum             |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      | Cur Hop Limit |M|O|H| Reserved|       Router Lifetime         |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                         Reachable Time                        |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                          Retrans Timer                        |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |   Options ...
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

   This format represents the following changes over that originally
   specified for Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]:

   Home Agent (H)

      The Home Agent (H) bit is set in a Router Advertisement to
      indicate that the router sending this Router Advertisement is also
      functioning as a Mobile IPv6 home agent on this link.

   Reserved

      Reduced from a 6-bit field to a 5-bit field to account for the
      addition of the above bit.








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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-7.2" href="#section-7.2">7.2</a>.  Modified Prefix Information Option Format</span>

   Mobile IPv6 requires knowledge of a router's global address in
   building a Home Agents List as part of the dynamic home agent address
   discovery mechanism.

   However, Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] only advertises a router's link-
   local address, by requiring this address to be used as the IP Source
   Address of each Router Advertisement.

   Mobile IPv6 extends Neighbor Discovery to allow a router to advertise
   its global address, by the addition of a single flag bit in the
   format of a Prefix Information option for use in Router Advertisement
   messages.  The format of the Prefix Information option is as follows:

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |    Length     | Prefix Length |L|A|R|Reserved1|
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                         Valid Lifetime                        |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                       Preferred Lifetime                      |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                           Reserved2                           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +                            Prefix                             +
      |                                                               |
      +                                                               +
      |                                                               |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   This format represents the following changes over that originally
   specified for Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]:

   Router Address (R)

      1-bit router address flag.  When set, indicates that the Prefix
      field contains a complete IP address assigned to the sending
      router.  The indicated prefix is given by the first Prefix Length
      bits of the Prefix field.  The router IP address has the same
      scope and conforms to the same lifetime values as the advertised
      prefix.  This use of the Prefix field is compatible with its use
      in advertising the prefix itself, since Prefix Advertisement uses




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      only the leading bits.  Interpretation of this flag bit is thus
      independent of the processing required for the On-Link (L) and
      Autonomous Address-Configuration (A) flag bits.

   Reserved1

      Reduced from a 6-bit field to a 5-bit field to account for the
      addition of the above bit.

   In a Router Advertisement, a home agent MUST, and all other routers
   MAY, include at least one Prefix Information option with the Router
   Address (R) bit set.  Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]) specifies
   that, when including all options in a Router Advertisement causes the
   size of the Advertisement to exceed the link MTU, multiple
   Advertisements can be sent, each containing a subset of the Neighbor
   Discovery options.  Also, when sending unsolicited multicast Router
   Advertisements more frequently than the limit specified in <a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a>,
   the sending router need not include all options in each of these
   Advertisements.  However, in both of these cases the router SHOULD
   include at least one Prefix Information option with the Router
   Address (R) bit set in each such advertisement, if this bit is set in
   some advertisement sent by the router.

   In addition, the following requirement can assist mobile nodes in
   movement detection.  Barring changes in the prefixes for the link,
   routers that send multiple Router Advertisements with the Router
   Address (R) bit set in some of the included Prefix Information
   options SHOULD provide at least one option and router address that
   stays the same in all of the Advertisements.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-7.3" href="#section-7.3">7.3</a>.  New Advertisement Interval Option Format</span>

   Mobile IPv6 defines a new Advertisement Interval option, used in
   Router Advertisement messages to advertise the interval at which the
   sending router sends unsolicited multicast Router Advertisements.
   The format of the Advertisement Interval option is as follows:

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |    Length     |           Reserved            |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                     Advertisement Interval                    |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+







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   Type

      7

   Length

      8-bit unsigned integer.  The length of the option (including the
      type and length fields) is in units of 8 octets.  The value of
      this field MUST be 1.

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   Advertisement Interval

      32-bit unsigned integer.  The maximum time, in milliseconds,
      between successive unsolicited Router Advertisement messages sent
      by this router on this network interface.  Using the conceptual
      router configuration variables defined by Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>],
      this field MUST be equal to the value MaxRtrAdvInterval, expressed
      in milliseconds.

   Routers MAY include this option in their Router Advertisements.  A
   mobile node receiving a Router Advertisement containing this option
   SHOULD utilize the specified Advertisement Interval for that router
   in its movement detection algorithm, as described in <a href="#section-11.5.1">Section 11.5.1</a>.

   This option MUST be silently ignored for other Neighbor Discovery
   messages.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-7.4" href="#section-7.4">7.4</a>.  New Home Agent Information Option Format</span>

   Mobile IPv6 defines a new Home Agent Information option, used in
   Router Advertisements sent by a home agent to advertise information
   specific to this router's functionality as a home agent.  The format
   of the Home Agent Information option is as follows:

       0                   1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Type      |    Length     |           Reserved            |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |     Home Agent Preference     |      Home Agent Lifetime      |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+





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   Type

      8

   Length

      8-bit unsigned integer.  The length of the option (including the
      type and length fields) in units of 8 octets.  The value of this
      field MUST be 1.

   Reserved

      This field is unused.  It MUST be initialized to zero by the
      sender and MUST be ignored by the receiver.

   Home Agent Preference

      16-bit unsigned integer.  The preference for the home agent
      sending this Router Advertisement, for use in ordering the
      addresses returned to a mobile node in the Home Agent Addresses
      field of a Home Agent Address Discovery Reply message.  Higher
      values mean more preferable.  If this option is not included in a
      Router Advertisement in which the Home Agent (H) bit is set, the
      preference value for this home agent MUST be considered to be 0.
      Greater values indicate a more preferable home agent than lower
      values.

      The manual configuration of the Home Agent Preference value is
      described in <a href="#section-8.4">Section 8.4</a>.  In addition, the sending home agent MAY
      dynamically set the Home Agent Preference value, for example,
      basing it on the number of mobile nodes it is currently serving or
      on its remaining resources for serving additional mobile nodes;
      such dynamic settings are beyond the scope of this document.  Any
      such dynamic setting of the Home Agent Preference, however, MUST
      set the preference appropriately, relative to the default Home
      Agent Preference value of 0 that may be in use by some home agents
      on this link (i.e., a home agent not including a Home Agent
      Information option in its Router Advertisements will be considered
      to have a Home Agent Preference value of 0).

   Home Agent Lifetime

      16-bit unsigned integer.  The lifetime associated with the home
      agent in units of seconds.  The default value is the same as the
      Router Lifetime, as specified in the main body of the Router
      Advertisement.  The maximum value corresponds to 18.2 hours.  A





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      value of 0 MUST NOT be used.  The Home Agent Lifetime applies only
      to this router's usefulness as a home agent; it does not apply to
      information contained in other message fields or options.

   Home agents MAY include this option in their Router Advertisements.
   This option MUST NOT be included in a Router Advertisement in which
   the Home Agent (H) bit (see <a href="#section-7.1">Section 7.1</a>) is not set.  If this option
   is not included in a Router Advertisement in which the Home Agent (H)
   bit is set, the lifetime for this home agent MUST be considered to be
   the same as the Router Lifetime in the Router Advertisement.  If
   multiple Advertisements are being sent instead of a single larger
   unsolicited multicast Router Advertisement, all of the multiple
   Advertisements with the Router Address (R) bit set MUST include this
   option with the same contents; otherwise, this option MUST be omitted
   from all Advertisements.

   This option MUST be silently ignored for other Neighbor Discovery
   messages.

   If both the Home Agent Preference and Home Agent Lifetime are set to
   their default values specified above, this option SHOULD NOT be
   included in the Router Advertisement messages sent by this home
   agent.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-7.5" href="#section-7.5">7.5</a>.  Changes to Sending Router Advertisements</span>

   The Neighbor Discovery protocol specification [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] limits routers to
   a minimum interval of 3 seconds between sending unsolicited multicast
   Router Advertisement messages from any given network interface
   (limited by MinRtrAdvInterval and MaxRtrAdvInterval), stating that:

      Routers generate Router Advertisements frequently enough that
      hosts will learn of their presence within a few minutes, but not
      frequently enough to rely on an absence of advertisements to
      detect router failure; a separate Neighbor Unreachability
      Detection algorithm provides failure detection.

   This limitation, however, is not suitable to providing timely
   movement detection for mobile nodes.  Mobile nodes detect their own
   movement by learning the presence of new routers as the mobile node
   moves into wireless transmission range of them (or physically
   connects to a new wired network), and by learning that previous
   routers are no longer reachable.  Mobile nodes MUST be able to
   quickly detect when they move to a link served by a new router, so
   that they can acquire a new care-of address and send Binding Updates
   to register this care-of address with their home agent and to notify
   correspondent nodes as needed.




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   One method that can provide for faster movement detection is to
   increase the rate at which unsolicited Router Advertisements are
   sent.  Mobile IPv6 relaxes this limit such that routers MAY send
   unsolicited multicast Router Advertisements more frequently.  This
   method can be applied where the router is expecting to provide
   service to visiting mobile nodes (e.g., wireless network interfaces),
   or on which it is serving as a home agent to one or more mobile nodes
   (who may return home and need to hear its Advertisements).

   Routers supporting mobility SHOULD be able to be configured with a
   smaller MinRtrAdvInterval value and MaxRtrAdvInterval value to allow
   sending of unsolicited multicast Router Advertisements more often.
   The minimum allowed values are:

   o  MinRtrAdvInterval 0.03 seconds

   o  MaxRtrAdvInterval 0.07 seconds

   In the case where the minimum intervals and delays are used, the mean
   time between unsolicited multicast Router Advertisements is 50 ms.
   Use of these modified limits MUST be configurable (see also the
   configuration variable MinDelayBetweenRas in <a href="#section-13">Section 13</a> that may also
   have to be modified accordingly).  Systems where these values are
   available MUST NOT default to them, and SHOULD default to values
   specified in Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]).  Knowledge of the
   type of network interface and operating environment SHOULD be taken
   into account in configuring these limits for each network interface.
   This is important with some wireless links, where increasing the
   frequency of multicast beacons can cause considerable overhead.
   Routers SHOULD adhere to the intervals specified in <a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>], if
   this overhead is likely to cause service degradation.

   Additionally, the possible low values of MaxRtrAdvInterval may cause
   some problems with movement detection in some mobile nodes.  To
   ensure that this is not a problem, Routers SHOULD add 20 ms to any
   Advertisement Intervals sent in RAs that are below 200 ms, in order
   to account for scheduling granularities on both the MN and the
   router.

   Note that multicast Router Advertisements are not always required in
   certain wireless networks that have limited bandwidth.  Mobility
   detection or link changes in such networks may be done at lower
   layers.  Router advertisements in such networks SHOULD be sent only
   when solicited.  In such networks it SHOULD be possible to disable
   unsolicited multicast Router Advertisements on specific interfaces.
   The MinRtrAdvInterval and MaxRtrAdvInterval in such a case can be set
   to some high values.




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   Home agents MUST include the Source Link-Layer Address option in all
   Router Advertisements they send.  This simplifies the process of
   returning home, as discussed in <a href="#section-11.5.5">Section 11.5.5</a>.

   Note that according to Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]),
   AdvDefaultLifetime is by default based on the value of
   MaxRtrAdvInterval.  AdvDefaultLifetime is used in the Router Lifetime
   field of Router Advertisements.  Given that this field is expressed
   in seconds, a small MaxRtrAdvInterval value can result in a zero
   value for this field.  To prevent this, routers SHOULD keep
   AdvDefaultLifetime in at least one second, even if the use of
   MaxRtrAdvInterval would result in a smaller value.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-8" href="#section-8">8</a>.  Requirements for Types of IPv6 Nodes</span>

   Mobile IPv6 places some special requirements on the functions
   provided by different types of IPv6 nodes.  This section summarizes
   those requirements, identifying the functionality each requirement is
   intended to support.

   The requirements are set for the following groups of nodes:

   o  All IPv6 nodes.

   o  All IPv6 nodes with support for route optimization.

   o  All IPv6 routers.

   o  All Mobile IPv6 home agents.

   o  All Mobile IPv6 mobile nodes.

   It is outside the scope of this specification to specify which of
   these groups are mandatory in IPv6.  We only describe what is
   mandatory for a node that supports, for instance, route optimization.
   Other specifications are expected to define the extent of IPv6.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-8.1" href="#section-8.1">8.1</a>.  All IPv6 Nodes</span>

   Any IPv6 node may at any time be a correspondent node of a mobile
   node, either sending a packet to a mobile node or receiving a packet
   from a mobile node.  There are no Mobile IPv6 specific MUST
   requirements for such nodes, and basic IPv6 techniques are
   sufficient.  If a mobile node attempts to set up route optimization
   with a node with only basic IPv6 support, an ICMP error will signal
   that the node does not support such optimizations (<a href="#section-11.3.5">Section 11.3.5</a>),
   and communications will flow through the home agent.




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   An IPv6 node MUST NOT support the Home Address destination option,
   type 2 routing header, or the Mobility Header unless it fully
   supports the requirements listed in the next sections for either
   route optimization, mobile node, or home agent functionality.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-8.2" href="#section-8.2">8.2</a>.  IPv6 Nodes with Support for Route Optimization</span>

   Nodes that implement route optimization are a subset of all IPv6
   nodes on the Internet.  The ability of a correspondent node to
   participate in route optimization is essential for the efficient
   operation of the IPv6 Internet, for the following reasons:

   o  Avoidance of congestion in the home network, and enabling the use
      of lower-performance home agent equipment even for supporting
      thousands of mobile nodes.

   o  Reduced network load across the entire Internet, as mobile devices
      begin to predominate.

   o  Reduction of jitter and latency for the communications.

   o  Greater likelihood of success for Quality of Service (QoS)
      signaling as tunneling is avoided and, again, fewer sources of
      congestion.

   o  Improved robustness against network partitions, congestion, and
      other problems, since fewer routing path segments are traversed.

   These effects combine to enable much better performance and
   robustness for communications between mobile nodes and IPv6
   correspondent nodes.  Route optimization introduces a small amount of
   additional state for the peers, some additional messaging, and up to
   1.5 round-trip delays before it can be turned on.  However, it is
   believed that the benefits far outweigh the costs in most cases.
   <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a> discusses how mobile nodes may avoid route
   optimization for some of the remaining cases, such as very short-term
   communications.

   The following requirements apply to all correspondent nodes that
   support route optimization:

   o  The node MUST be able to validate a Home Address option using an
      existing Binding Cache entry, as described in <a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a>.

   o  The node MUST be able to insert a type 2 routing header into
      packets to be sent to a mobile node, as described in
      <a href="#section-9.3.2">Section 9.3.2</a>.




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   o  Unless the correspondent node is also acting as a mobile node, it
      MUST ignore type 2 routing headers and silently discard all
      packets that it has received with such headers.

   o  The node SHOULD be able to interpret ICMP messages as described in
      <a href="#section-9.3.4">Section 9.3.4</a>.

   o  The node MUST be able to send Binding Error messages as described
      in <a href="#section-9.3.3">Section 9.3.3</a>.

   o  The node MUST be able to process Mobility Headers as described in
      <a href="#section-9.2">Section 9.2</a>.

   o  The node MUST be able to participate in a return routability
      procedure (<a href="#section-9.4">Section 9.4</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to process Binding Update messages
      (<a href="#section-9.5">Section 9.5</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to return a Binding Acknowledgement
      (<a href="#section-9.5.4">Section 9.5.4</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to maintain a Binding Cache of the bindings
      received in accepted Binding Updates, as described in Sections <a href="#section-9.1">9.1</a>
      and 9.6.

   o  The node SHOULD allow route optimization to be administratively
      enabled or disabled.  The default SHOULD be enabled.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-8.3" href="#section-8.3">8.3</a>.  All IPv6 Routers</span>

   All IPv6 routers, even those not serving as a home agent for Mobile
   IPv6, have an effect on how well mobile nodes can communicate:

   o  Every IPv6 router SHOULD be able to send an Advertisement Interval
      option (<a href="#section-7.3">Section 7.3</a>) in each of its Router Advertisements [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>], to
      aid movement detection by mobile nodes (as in <a href="#section-11.5.1">Section 11.5.1</a>).
      The use of this option in Router Advertisements SHOULD be
      configurable.

   o  Every IPv6 router SHOULD be able to support sending unsolicited
      multicast Router Advertisements at the faster rate described in
      <a href="#section-7.5">Section 7.5</a>.  If the router supports a faster rate, the used rate
      MUST be configurable.

   o  Each router SHOULD include at least one prefix with the Router
      Address (R) bit set and with its full IP address in its Router
      Advertisements (as described in <a href="#section-7.2">Section 7.2</a>).



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   o  Routers supporting filtering packets with routing headers SHOULD
      support different rules for type 0 and type 2 routing headers (see
      <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>) so that filtering of source routed packets (type 0)
      will not necessarily limit Mobile IPv6 traffic that is delivered
      via type 2 routing headers.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-8.4" href="#section-8.4">8.4</a>.  IPv6 Home Agents</span>

   In order for a mobile node to operate correctly while away from home,
   at least one IPv6 router on the mobile node's home link must function
   as a home agent for the mobile node.  The following additional
   requirements apply to all IPv6 routers that serve as a home agent:

   o  Every home agent MUST be able to maintain an entry in its Binding
      Cache for each mobile node for which it is serving as the home
      agent (Sections <a href="#section-10.1">10.1</a> and <a href="#section-10.3.1">10.3.1</a>).

   o  Every home agent MUST be able to intercept packets (using proxy
      Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]) addressed to a mobile node for which it
      is currently serving as the home agent, on that mobile node's home
      link, while the mobile node is away from home (<a href="#section-10.4.1">Section 10.4.1</a>).

   o  Every home agent MUST be able to encapsulate [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>] such intercepted
      packets in order to tunnel them to the primary care-of address for
      the mobile node indicated in its binding in the home agent's
      Binding Cache (<a href="#section-10.4.2">Section 10.4.2</a>).

   o  Every home agent MUST support decapsulating [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>] reverse-tunneled
      packets sent to it from a mobile node's home address.  Every home
      agent MUST also check that the source address in the tunneled
      packets corresponds to the currently registered location of the
      mobile node (<a href="#section-10.4.5">Section 10.4.5</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to process Mobility Headers as described in
      <a href="#section-10.2">Section 10.2</a>.

   o  Every home agent MUST be able to return a Binding Acknowledgement
      in response to a Binding Update (<a href="#section-10.3.1">Section 10.3.1</a>).

   o  Every home agent MUST maintain a separate Home Agents List for
      each link on which it is serving as a home agent, as described in
      Sections <a href="#section-10.1">10.1</a> and <a href="#section-10.5.1">10.5.1</a>.

   o  Every home agent MUST be able to accept packets addressed to the
      Mobile IPv6 Home-Agents anycast address [<a href="#ref-8" title="&quot;Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses&quot;">8</a>] for the subnet on
      which it is serving as a home agent, and MUST be able to
      participate in dynamic home agent address discovery
      (<a href="#section-10.5">Section 10.5</a>).



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   o  Every home agent SHOULD support a configuration mechanism to allow
      a system administrator to manually set the value to be sent by
      this home agent in the Home Agent Preference field of the Home
      Agent Information Option in Router Advertisements that it sends
      (<a href="#section-7.4">Section 7.4</a>).

   o  Every home agent SHOULD support sending ICMP Mobile Prefix
      Advertisements (<a href="#section-6.8">Section 6.8</a>), and SHOULD respond to Mobile Prefix
      Solicitations (<a href="#section-6.7">Section 6.7</a>).  If supported, this behavior MUST be
      configurable, so that home agents can be configured to avoid
      sending such Prefix Advertisements according to the needs of the
      network administration in the home domain.

   o  Every home agent MUST support IPsec ESP for protection of packets
      belonging to the return routability procedure (<a href="#section-10.4.6">Section 10.4.6</a>).

   o  Every home agent SHOULD support the multicast group membership
      control protocols as described in <a href="#section-10.4.3">Section 10.4.3</a>.  If this support
      is provided, the home agent MUST be capable of using it to
      determine which multicast data packets to forward via the tunnel
      to the mobile node.

   o  Home agents MAY support stateful address autoconfiguration for
      mobile nodes as described in <a href="#section-10.4.4">Section 10.4.4</a>.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-8.5" href="#section-8.5">8.5</a>.  IPv6 Mobile Nodes</span>

   Finally, the following requirements apply to all IPv6 nodes capable
   of functioning as mobile nodes:

   o  The node MUST maintain a Binding Update List (<a href="#section-11.1">Section 11.1</a>).

   o  The node MUST support sending packets containing a Home Address
      option (<a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a>), and follow the required IPsec interaction
      (<a href="#section-11.3.2">Section 11.3.2</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to perform IPv6 encapsulation and
      decapsulation [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>].

   o  The node MUST be able to process type 2 routing header as defined
      in Sections <a href="#section-6.4">6.4</a> and <a href="#section-11.3.3">11.3.3</a>.

   o  The node MUST support receiving a Binding Error message
      (<a href="#section-11.3.6">Section 11.3.6</a>).

   o  The node MUST support receiving ICMP errors (<a href="#section-11.3.5">Section 11.3.5</a>).





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   o  The node MUST support movement detection, care-of address
      formation, and returning home (<a href="#section-11.5">Section 11.5</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to process Mobility Headers as described in
      <a href="#section-11.2">Section 11.2</a>.

   o  The node MUST support the return routability procedure
      (<a href="#section-11.6">Section 11.6</a>).

   o  The node MUST be able to send Binding Updates, as specified in
      Sections <a href="#section-11.7.1">11.7.1</a> and <a href="#section-11.7.2">11.7.2</a>.

   o  The node MUST be able to receive and process Binding
      Acknowledgements, as specified in <a href="#section-11.7.3">Section 11.7.3</a>.

   o  The node MUST support receiving a Binding Refresh Request
      (<a href="#section-6.1.2">Section 6.1.2</a>), by responding with a Binding Update.

   o  The node MUST support receiving Mobile Prefix Advertisements
      (<a href="#section-11.4.3">Section 11.4.3</a>) and reconfiguring its home address based on the
      prefix information contained therein.

   o  The node SHOULD support use of the dynamic home agent address
      discovery mechanism, as described in <a href="#section-11.4.1">Section 11.4.1</a>.

   o  The node MUST allow route optimization to be administratively
      enabled or disabled.  The default SHOULD be enabled.

   o  The node MAY support the multicast address listener part of a
      multicast group membership protocol as described in
      <a href="#section-11.3.4">Section 11.3.4</a>.  If this support is provided, the mobile node MUST
      be able to receive tunneled multicast packets from the home agent.

   o  The node MAY support stateful address autoconfiguration mechanisms
      such as DHCPv6 [<a href="#ref-31" title="&quot;Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)&quot;">31</a>] on the interface represented by the tunnel to
      the home agent.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-9" href="#section-9">9</a>.  Correspondent Node Operation</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.1" href="#section-9.1">9.1</a>.  Conceptual Data Structures</span>

   IPv6 nodes with route optimization support maintain a Binding Cache
   of bindings for other nodes.  A separate Binding Cache SHOULD be
   maintained by each IPv6 node for each of its unicast routable
   addresses.  The Binding Cache MAY be implemented in any manner
   consistent with the external behavior described in this document, for
   example, by being combined with the node's Destination Cache as




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   maintained by Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].  When sending a packet, the
   Binding Cache is searched before the Neighbor Discovery conceptual
   Destination Cache [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].

   Each Binding Cache entry conceptually contains the following fields:

   o  The home address of the mobile node for which this is the Binding
      Cache entry.  This field is used as the key for searching the
      Binding Cache for the destination address of a packet being sent.

   o  The care-of address for the mobile node indicated by the home
      address field in this Binding Cache entry.

   o  A lifetime value, indicating the remaining lifetime for this
      Binding Cache entry.  The lifetime value is initialized from the
      Lifetime field in the Binding Update that created or last modified
      this Binding Cache entry.  A correspondent node MAY select a
      smaller lifetime for the Binding Cache entry, and supply that
      value to the mobile node in the Binding Acknowledgment message.

   o  A flag indicating whether or not this Binding Cache entry is a
      home registration entry (applicable only on nodes that support
      home agent functionality).

   o  The maximum value of the Sequence Number field received in
      previous Binding Updates for this home address.  The Sequence
      Number field is 16 bits long.  Sequence Number values MUST be
      compared modulo 2**16 as explained in <a href="#section-9.5.1">Section 9.5.1</a>.

   o  Usage information for this Binding Cache entry.  This is needed to
      implement the cache replacement policy in use in the Binding
      Cache.  Recent use of a cache entry also serves as an indication
      that a Binding Refresh Request should be sent when the lifetime of
      this entry nears expiration.

   Binding Cache entries not marked as home registrations MAY be
   replaced at any time by any reasonable local cache replacement policy
   but SHOULD NOT be unnecessarily deleted.  The Binding Cache for any
   one of a node's IPv6 addresses may contain at most one entry for each
   mobile node home address.  The contents of a node's Binding Cache
   MUST NOT be changed in response to a Home Address option in a
   received packet.









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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.2" href="#section-9.2">9.2</a>.  Processing Mobility Headers</span>

   Mobility Header processing MUST observe the following rules:

   o  The checksum must be verified as per <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>.  If invalid, the
      node MUST silently discard the message.

   o  The MH Type field MUST have a known value (<a href="#section-6.1.1">Section 6.1.1</a>).
      Otherwise, the node MUST discard the message and issue a Binding
      Error message as described in <a href="#section-9.3.3">Section 9.3.3</a>, with the Status field
      set to 2 (unrecognized MH Type value).

   o  The Payload Proto field MUST be IPPROTO_NONE (59 decimal).
      Otherwise, the node MUST discard the message and SHOULD send ICMP
      Parameter Problem, Code 0, directly to the Source Address of the
      packet as specified in <a href="./rfc4443">RFC 4443</a> [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].  Thus, no Binding Cache
      information is used in sending the ICMP message.  The Pointer
      field in the ICMP message SHOULD point at the Payload Proto field.

   o  The Header Len field in the Mobility Header MUST NOT be less than
      the length specified for this particular type of message in
      <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>.  Otherwise, the node MUST discard the message and
      SHOULD send ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 0, directly to the Source
      Address of the packet as specified in <a href="./rfc4443">RFC 4443</a> [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].  (The Binding
      Cache information is again not used.)  The Pointer field in the
      ICMP message SHOULD point at the Header Len field.

   Subsequent checks depend on the particular Mobility Header.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.3" href="#section-9.3">9.3</a>.  Packet Processing</span>

   This section describes how the correspondent node sends packets to
   the mobile node, and receives packets from it.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.3.1" href="#section-9.3.1">9.3.1</a>.  Receiving Packets with Home Address Option</span>

   Packets containing a Home Address option MUST be dropped if the given
   home address is not a unicast routable address.

   Mobile nodes can include a Home Address destination option in a
   packet if they believe the correspondent node has a Binding Cache
   entry for the home address of a mobile node.  If the Next Header
   value of the Destination Option is one of the following: {50 (ESP),
   51 (AH), 135 (Mobility Header)}, the packet SHOULD be processed
   normally.  Otherwise, the packet MUST be dropped if there is no
   corresponding Binding Cache entry.  A corresponding Binding Cache





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   entry MUST have the same home address as appears in the Home Address
   destination option, and the currently registered care-of address MUST
   be equal to the source address of the packet.

   If the packet is dropped due to the above tests, the correspondent
   node MUST send the Binding Error message as described in
   <a href="#section-9.3.3">Section 9.3.3</a>.  The Status field in this message should be set to 1
   (unknown binding for Home Address destination option).

   The correspondent node MUST process the option in a manner consistent
   with exchanging the Home Address field from the Home Address option
   into the IPv6 header and replacing the original value of the Source
   Address field there.  After all IPv6 options have been processed, it
   MUST be possible for upper layers to process the packet without the
   knowledge that it came originally from a care-of address or that a
   Home Address option was used.

   The use of IPsec Authentication Header (AH) for the Home Address
   option is not required, except that if the IPv6 header of a packet is
   covered by AH, then the authentication MUST also cover the Home
   Address option; this coverage is achieved automatically by the
   definition of the Option Type code for the Home Address option, since
   it indicates that the data within the option cannot change en route
   to the packet's final destination, and thus the option is included in
   the AH computation.  By requiring that any authentication of the IPv6
   header also cover the Home Address option, the security of the Source
   Address field in the IPv6 header is not compromised by the presence
   of a Home Address option.

   When attempting to verify AH authentication data in a packet that
   contains a Home Address option, the receiving node MUST calculate the
   AH authentication data as if the following were true: the Home
   Address option contains the care-of address, and the source IPv6
   address field of the IPv6 header contains the home address.  This
   conforms with the calculation specified in <a href="#section-11.3.2">Section 11.3.2</a>.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.3.2" href="#section-9.3.2">9.3.2</a>.  Sending Packets to a Mobile Node</span>

   Before sending any packet, the sending node SHOULD examine its
   Binding Cache for an entry for the destination address to which the
   packet is being sent.  If the sending node has a Binding Cache entry
   for this address, the sending node SHOULD use a type 2 routing header
   to route the packet to this mobile node (the destination node) by way
   of its care-of address.  However, the sending node MUST NOT do this
   in the following cases:

   o  When sending an IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] packet.




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   o  Where otherwise noted in <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>.

   When calculating authentication data in a packet that contains a type
   2 routing header, the correspondent node MUST calculate the AH
   authentication data as if the following were true: the routing header
   contains the care-of address, the destination IPv6 address field of
   the IPv6 header contains the home address, and the Segments Left
   field is zero.  The IPsec Security Policy Database lookup MUST based
   on the mobile node's home address.

   For instance, assuming there are no additional routing headers in
   this packet beyond those needed by Mobile IPv6, the correspondent
   node could set the fields in the packet's IPv6 header and routing
   header as follows:

   o  The Destination Address in the packet's IPv6 header is set to the
      mobile node's home address (the original destination address to
      which the packet was being sent).

   o  The routing header is initialized to contain a single route
      segment, containing the mobile node's care-of address copied from
      the Binding Cache entry.  The Segments Left field is, however,
      temporarily set to zero.

   The IP layer will insert the routing header before performing any
   necessary IPsec processing.  Once all IPsec processing has been
   performed, the node swaps the IPv6 destination field with the Home
   Address field in the routing header, sets the Segments Left field to
   one, and sends the packet.  This ensures the AH calculation is done
   on the packet in the form it will have on the receiver after
   advancing the routing header.

   Following the definition of a type 2 routing header in <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>,
   this packet will be routed to the mobile node's care-of address,
   where it will be delivered to the mobile node (the mobile node has
   associated the care-of address with its network interface).

   Note that following the above conceptual model in an implementation
   creates some additional requirements for path MTU discovery since the
   layer that determines the packet size (e.g., TCP and applications
   using UDP) needs to be aware of the size of the headers added by the
   IP layer on the sending node.

   If, instead, the sending node has no Binding Cache entry for the
   destination address to which the packet is being sent, the sending
   node simply sends the packet normally, with no routing header.  If
   the destination node is not a mobile node (or is a mobile node that
   is currently at home), the packet will be delivered directly to this



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   node and processed normally by it.  If, however, the destination node
   is a mobile node that is currently away from home, the packet will be
   intercepted by the mobile node's home agent and tunneled to the
   mobile node's current primary care-of address.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.3.3" href="#section-9.3.3">9.3.3</a>.  Sending Binding Error Messages</span>

   Sections <a href="#section-9.2">9.2</a> and <a href="#section-9.3.1">9.3.1</a> describe error conditions that lead to a need
   to send a Binding Error message.

   A Binding Error message is sent directly to the address that appeared
   in the IPv6 Source Address field of the offending packet.  If the
   Source Address field does not contain a unicast address, the Binding
   Error message MUST NOT be sent.

   The Home Address field in the Binding Error message MUST be copied
   from the Home Address field in the Home Address destination option of
   the offending packet, or set to the unspecified address if no such
   option appeared in the packet.

   Note that the IPv6 Source Address and Home Address field values
   discussed above are the values from the wire, i.e., before any
   modifications possibly performed as specified in <a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a>.

   Binding Error messages SHOULD be subject to rate limiting in the same
   manner as is done for ICMPv6 messages [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>].

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.3.4" href="#section-9.3.4">9.3.4</a>.  Receiving ICMP Error Messages</span>

   When the correspondent node has a Binding Cache entry for a mobile
   node, all traffic destined to the mobile node goes directly to the
   current care-of address of the mobile node using a routing header.
   Any ICMP error message caused by packets on their way to the care-of
   address will be returned in the normal manner to the correspondent
   node.

   On the other hand, if the correspondent node has no Binding Cache
   entry for the mobile node, the packet will be routed through the
   mobile node's home link.  Any ICMP error message caused by the packet
   on its way to the mobile node while in the tunnel, will be
   transmitted to the mobile node's home agent.  By the definition of
   IPv6 encapsulation [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>], the home agent MUST relay certain ICMP error
   messages back to the original sender of the packet, which in this
   case is the correspondent node.

   Thus, in all cases, any meaningful ICMP error messages caused by
   packets from a correspondent node to a mobile node will be returned
   to the correspondent node.  If the correspondent node receives



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   persistent ICMP Destination Unreachable messages after sending
   packets to a mobile node based on an entry in its Binding Cache, the
   correspondent node SHOULD delete this Binding Cache entry.  Note that
   if the mobile node continues to send packets with the Home Address
   destination option to this correspondent node, they will be dropped
   due to the lack of a binding.  For this reason it is important that
   only persistent ICMP messages lead to the deletion of the Binding
   Cache entry.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.4" href="#section-9.4">9.4</a>.  Return Routability Procedure</span>

   This subsection specifies actions taken by a correspondent node
   during the return routability procedure.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.4.1" href="#section-9.4.1">9.4.1</a>.  Receiving Home Test Init Messages</span>

   Upon receiving a Home Test Init message, the correspondent node
   verifies the following:

   o  The packet MUST NOT include a Home Address destination option.

   Any packet carrying a Home Test Init message that fails to satisfy
   this test MUST be silently ignored.

   Otherwise, in preparation for sending the corresponding Home Test
   Message, the correspondent node checks that it has the necessary
   material to engage in a return routability procedure, as specified in
   <a href="#section-5.2">Section 5.2</a>.  The correspondent node MUST have a secret Kcn and a
   nonce.  If it does not have this material yet, it MUST produce it
   before continuing with the return routability procedure.

   <a href="#section-9.4.3">Section 9.4.3</a> specifies further processing.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.4.2" href="#section-9.4.2">9.4.2</a>.  Receiving Care-of Test Init Messages</span>

   Upon receiving a Care-of Test Init message, the correspondent node
   verifies the following:

   o  The packet MUST NOT include a Home Address destination option.

   Any packet carrying a Care-of Test Init message that fails to satisfy
   this test MUST be silently ignored.

   Otherwise, in preparation for sending the corresponding Care-of Test
   Message, the correspondent node checks that it has the necessary
   material to engage in a return routability procedure in the manner
   described in <a href="#section-9.4.1">Section 9.4.1</a>.




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   <a href="#section-9.4.4">Section 9.4.4</a> specifies further processing.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.4.3" href="#section-9.4.3">9.4.3</a>.  Sending Home Test Messages</span>

   The correspondent node creates a home keygen token and uses the
   current nonce index as the Home Nonce Index.  It then creates a Home
   Test message (<a href="#section-6.1.5">Section 6.1.5</a>) and sends it to the mobile node at the
   latter's home address.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.4.4" href="#section-9.4.4">9.4.4</a>.  Sending Care-of Test Messages</span>

   The correspondent node creates a care-of keygen token and uses the
   current nonce index as the Care-of Nonce Index.  It then creates a
   Care-of Test message (<a href="#section-6.1.6">Section 6.1.6</a>) and sends it to the mobile node
   at the latter's care-of address.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.5" href="#section-9.5">9.5</a>.  Processing Bindings</span>

   This section explains how the correspondent node processes messages
   related to bindings.  These messages are:

   o  Binding Update

   o  Binding Refresh Request

   o  Binding Acknowledgement

   o  Binding Error

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.5.1" href="#section-9.5.1">9.5.1</a>.  Receiving Binding Updates</span>

   Before accepting a Binding Update, the receiving node MUST validate
   the Binding Update according to the following tests:

   o  The packet MUST contain a unicast routable home address, either in
      the Home Address option or in the Source Address, if the Home
      Address option is not present.

   o  The Sequence Number field in the Binding Update is greater than
      the Sequence Number received in the previous valid Binding Update
      for this home address, if any.

      If the receiving node has no Binding Cache entry for the indicated
      home address, it MUST accept any Sequence Number value in a
      received Binding Update from this mobile node.






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      This Sequence Number comparison MUST be performed modulo 2**16,
      i.e., the number is a free running counter represented modulo
      65536.  A Sequence Number in a received Binding Update is
      considered less than or equal to the last received number if its
      value lies in the range of the last received number and the
      preceding 32768 values, inclusive.  For example, if the last
      received sequence number was 15, then messages with sequence
      numbers 0 through 15, as well as 32783 through 65535, would be
      considered less than or equal.

   When the Home Registration (H) bit is not set, the following are also
   required:

   o  A Nonce Indices mobility option MUST be present, and the Home and
      Care-of Nonce Index values in this option MUST be recent enough to
      be recognized by the correspondent node.  (Care-of Nonce Index
      values are not inspected for requests to delete a binding.)

   o  The correspondent node MUST re-generate the home keygen token and
      the care-of keygen token from the information contained in the
      packet.  It then generates the binding management key Kbm and uses
      it to verify the authenticator field in the Binding Update as
      specified in <a href="#section-6.1.7">Section 6.1.7</a>.

   o  The Binding Authorization Data mobility option MUST be present,
      and its contents MUST satisfy rules presented in <a href="#section-5.2.6">Section 5.2.6</a>.
      Note that a care-of address different from the Source Address MAY
      have been specified by including an Alternate Care-of Address
      mobility option in the Binding Update.  When such a message is
      received and the return routability procedure is used as an
      authorization method, the correspondent node MUST verify the
      authenticator by using the address within the Alternate Care-of
      Address in the calculations.

   o  The Binding Authorization Data mobility option MUST be the last
      option and MUST NOT have trailing padding.

   If the Home Registration (H) bit is set, the Nonce Indices mobility
   option MUST NOT be present.

   If the mobile node sends a sequence number that is not greater than
   the sequence number from the last valid Binding Update for this home
   address, then the receiving node MUST send back a Binding
   Acknowledgement with status code 135, and the last accepted sequence
   number in the Sequence Number field of the Binding Acknowledgement.






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   If a binding already exists for the given home address and the home
   registration flag has a different value than the Home Registration
   (H) bit in the Binding Update, then the receiving node MUST send back
   a Binding Acknowledgement with status code 139 (registration type
   change disallowed).  The home registration flag stored in the Binding
   Cache entry MUST NOT be changed.

   If the receiving node no longer recognizes the Home Nonce Index
   value, Care-of Nonce Index value, or both values from the Binding
   Update, then the receiving node MUST send back a Binding
   Acknowledgement with status code 136, 137, or 138, respectively.

   Packets carrying Binding Updates that fail to satisfy all of these
   tests for any reason other than insufficiency of the Sequence Number,
   registration type change, or expired nonce index values, MUST be
   silently discarded.

   If the Binding Update is valid according to the tests above, then the
   Binding Update is processed further as follows:

   o  The Sequence Number value received from a mobile node in a Binding
      Update is stored by the receiving node in its Binding Cache entry
      for the given home address.

   o  If the Lifetime specified in the Binding Update is not zero, then
      this is a request to cache a binding for the home address.  If the
      Home Registration (H) bit is set in the Binding Update, the
      Binding Update is processed according to the procedure specified
      in <a href="#section-10.3.1">Section 10.3.1</a>; otherwise, it is processed according to the
      procedure specified in <a href="#section-9.5.2">Section 9.5.2</a>.

   o  If the Lifetime specified in the Binding Update is zero, then this
      is a request to delete the cached binding for the home address.
      In this case, the Binding Update MUST include a valid home nonce
      index, and the care-of nonce index MUST be ignored by the
      correspondent node.  The generation of the binding management key
      depends then exclusively on the home keygen token (<a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>).
      If the Home Registration (H) bit is set in the Binding Update, the
      Binding Update is processed according to the procedure specified
      in <a href="#section-10.3.2">Section 10.3.2</a>; otherwise, it is processed according to the
      procedure specified in <a href="#section-9.5.3">Section 9.5.3</a>.

   The specified care-of address MUST be determined as follows:

   o  If the Alternate Care-of Address option is present, the care-of
      address is the address in that option.





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   o  Otherwise, the care-of address is the Source Address field in the
      packet's IPv6 header.

   The home address for the binding MUST be determined as follows:

   o  If the Home Address destination option is present, the home
      address is the address in that option.

   o  Otherwise, the home address is the Source Address field in the
      packet's IPv6 header.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.5.2" href="#section-9.5.2">9.5.2</a>.  Requests to Cache a Binding</span>

   This section describes the processing of a valid Binding Update that
   requests a node to cache a binding, for which the Home Registration
   (H) bit is not set in the Binding Update.

   In this case, the receiving node SHOULD create a new entry in its
   Binding Cache for this home address, or update its existing Binding
   Cache entry for this home address, if such an entry already exists.
   The lifetime for the Binding Cache entry is initialized from the
   Lifetime field specified in the Binding Update, although this
   lifetime MAY be reduced by the node caching the binding; the lifetime
   for the Binding Cache entry MUST NOT be greater than the Lifetime
   value specified in the Binding Update.  Any Binding Cache entry MUST
   be deleted after the expiration of its lifetime.

   Note that if the mobile node did not request a Binding
   Acknowledgement, then it is not aware of the selected shorter
   lifetime.  The mobile node may thus use route optimization and send
   packets with the Home Address destination option.  As discussed in
   <a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a>, such packets will be dropped if there is no binding.
   This situation is recoverable, but can cause temporary packet loss.

   The correspondent node MAY refuse to accept a new Binding Cache entry
   if it does not have sufficient resources.  A new entry MAY also be
   refused if the correspondent node believes its resources are utilized
   more efficiently in some other purpose, such as serving another
   mobile node with higher amount of traffic.  In both cases the
   correspondent node SHOULD return a Binding Acknowledgement with
   status value 130.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.5.3" href="#section-9.5.3">9.5.3</a>.  Requests to Delete a Binding</span>

   This section describes the processing of a valid Binding Update that
   requests a node to delete a binding when the Home Registration (H)
   bit is not set in the Binding Update.




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   Any existing binding for the given home address MUST be deleted.  A
   Binding Cache entry for the home address MUST NOT be created in
   response to receiving the Binding Update.

   If the Binding Cache entry was created by use of return routability
   nonces, the correspondent node MUST ensure that the same nonces are
   not used again with the particular home and care-of address.  If both
   nonces are still valid, the correspondent node has to remember the
   particular combination of nonce indices, addresses, and sequence
   number as illegal until at least one of the nonces has become too
   old.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.5.4" href="#section-9.5.4">9.5.4</a>.  Sending Binding Acknowledgements</span>

   A Binding Acknowledgement may be sent to indicate receipt of a
   Binding Update as follows:

   o  If the Binding Update was discarded as described in Sections <a href="#section-9.2">9.2</a>
      or 9.5.1, a Binding Acknowledgement MUST NOT be sent.  Otherwise,
      the treatment depends on the following rules.

   o  If the Acknowledge (A) bit is set in the Binding Update, a Binding
      Acknowledgement MUST be sent.  Otherwise, the treatment depends on
      the next rule.

   o  If the node rejects the Binding Update due to an expired nonce
      index, sequence number being out of window (<a href="#section-9.5.1">Section 9.5.1</a>), or
      insufficiency of resources (<a href="#section-9.5.2">Section 9.5.2</a>), a Binding
      Acknowledgement MUST be sent.  If the node accepts the Binding
      Update, the Binding Acknowledgement SHOULD NOT be sent.

   If the node accepts the Binding Update and creates or updates an
   entry for this binding, the Status field in the Binding
   Acknowledgement MUST be set to a value less than 128.  Otherwise, the
   Status field MUST be set to a value greater than or equal to 128.
   Values for the Status field are described in <a href="#section-6.1.8">Section 6.1.8</a> and in the
   IANA registry of assigned numbers [<a href="#ref-30" title="&quot;Assigned Numbers: RFC 1700 is Replaced by an On- line Database&quot;">30</a>].

   If the Status field in the Binding Acknowledgement contains the value
   136 (expired home nonce index), 137 (expired care-of nonce index), or
   138 (expired nonces), then the message MUST NOT include the Binding
   Authorization Data mobility option.  Otherwise, the Binding
   Authorization Data mobility option MUST be included, and MUST meet
   the specific authentication requirements for Binding Acknowledgements
   as defined in <a href="#section-5.2">Section 5.2</a>.






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   If the Source Address field of the IPv6 header that carried the
   Binding Update does not contain a unicast address, the Binding
   Acknowledgement MUST NOT be sent and the Binding Update packet MUST
   be silently discarded.  Otherwise, the acknowledgement MUST be sent
   to the Source Address.  Unlike the treatment of regular packets, this
   addressing procedure does not use information from the Binding Cache.
   However, a routing header is needed in some cases.  If the Source
   Address is the home address of the mobile node, i.e., the Binding
   Update did not contain a Home Address destination option, then the
   Binding Acknowledgement MUST be sent to that address and the routing
   header MUST NOT be used.  Otherwise, the Binding Acknowledgement MUST
   be sent using a type 2 routing header that contains the mobile node's
   home address.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.5.5" href="#section-9.5.5">9.5.5</a>.  Sending Binding Refresh Requests</span>

   If a Binding Cache entry being deleted is still in active use when
   sending packets to a mobile node, then the next packet sent to the
   mobile node will be routed normally to the mobile node's home link.
   Communication with the mobile node continues, but the tunneling from
   the home network creates additional overhead and latency in
   delivering packets to the mobile node.

   If the sender knows that the Binding Cache entry is still in active
   use, it MAY send a Binding Refresh Request message to the mobile node
   in an attempt to avoid this overhead and latency due to deleting and
   recreating the Binding Cache entry.  This message is always sent to
   the home address of the mobile node.

   The correspondent node MAY retransmit Binding Refresh Request
   messages as long as the rate limitation is applied.  The
   correspondent node MUST stop retransmitting when it receives a
   Binding Update.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-9.6" href="#section-9.6">9.6</a>.  Cache Replacement Policy</span>

   Conceptually, a node maintains a separate timer for each entry in its
   Binding Cache.  When creating or updating a Binding Cache entry in
   response to a received and accepted Binding Update, the node sets the
   timer for this entry to the specified Lifetime period.  Any entry in
   a node's Binding Cache MUST be deleted after the expiration of the
   Lifetime specified in the Binding Update from which the entry was
   created or last updated.

   Each node's Binding Cache will, by necessity, have a finite size.  A
   node MAY use any reasonable local policy for managing the space
   within its Binding Cache.




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   A node MAY choose to drop any entry already in its Binding Cache in
   order to make space for a new entry.  For example, a "least-recently
   used" (LRU) strategy for cache entry replacement among entries should
   work well, unless the size of the Binding Cache is substantially
   insufficient.  When entries are deleted, the correspondent node MUST
   follow the rules in <a href="#section-5.2.8">Section 5.2.8</a> in order to guard the return
   routability procedure against replay attacks.

   If the node sends a packet to a destination for which it has dropped
   the entry from its Binding Cache, the packet will be routed through
   the mobile node's home link.  The mobile node can detect this and
   establish a new binding if necessary.

   However, if the mobile node believes that the binding still exists,
   it may use route optimization and send packets with the Home Address
   destination option.  This can create temporary packet loss, as
   discussed earlier, in the context of binding lifetime reductions
   performed by the correspondent node (<a href="#section-9.5.2">Section 9.5.2</a>).

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-10" href="#section-10">10</a>.  Home Agent Operation</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.1" href="#section-10.1">10.1</a>.  Conceptual Data Structures</span>

   Each home agent MUST maintain a Binding Cache and Home Agents List.

   The rules for maintaining a Binding Cache are the same for home
   agents and correspondent nodes and have already been described in
   <a href="#section-9.1">Section 9.1</a>.

   The Home Agents List is maintained by each home agent, recording
   information about each router on the same link that is acting as a
   home agent.  This list is used by the dynamic home agent address
   discovery mechanism.  A router is known to be acting as a home agent,
   if it sends a Router Advertisement in which the Home Agent (H) bit is
   set.  When the lifetime for a list entry (defined below) expires,
   that entry is removed from the Home Agents List.  The Home Agents
   List is similar to the Default Router List conceptual data structure
   maintained by each host for Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].  The Home Agents
   List MAY be implemented in any manner consistent with the external
   behavior described in this document.

   Each home agent maintains a separate Home Agents List for each link
   on which it is serving as a home agent.  A new entry is created or an
   existing entry is updated in response to receipt of a valid Router
   Advertisement in which the Home Agent (H) bit is set.  Each Home
   Agents List entry conceptually contains the following fields:





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   o  The link-local IP address of a home agent on the link.  This
      address is learned through the Source Address of the Router
      Advertisements [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] received from the router.

   o  One or more global IP addresses for this home agent.  Global
      addresses are learned through Prefix Information options with the
      Router Address (R) bit set and received in Router Advertisements
      from this link-local address.  Global addresses for the router in
      a Home Agents List entry MUST be deleted once the prefix
      associated with that address is no longer valid [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].

   o  The remaining lifetime of this Home Agents List entry.  If a Home
      Agent Information Option is present in a Router Advertisement
      received from a home agent, the lifetime of the Home Agents List
      entry representing that home agent is initialized from the Home
      Agent Lifetime field in the option (if present); otherwise, the
      lifetime is initialized from the Router Lifetime field in the
      received Router Advertisement.  If Home Agents List entry lifetime
      reaches zero, the entry MUST be deleted from the Home Agents List.

   o  The preference for this home agent; higher values indicate a more
      preferable home agent.  The preference value is taken from the
      Home Agent Preference field in the received Router Advertisement,
      if the Router Advertisement contains a Home Agent Information
      Option and is otherwise set to the default value of 0.  A home
      agent uses this preference in ordering the Home Agents List when
      it sends an ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery message.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.2" href="#section-10.2">10.2</a>.  Processing Mobility Headers</span>

   All IPv6 home agents MUST observe the rules described in <a href="#section-9.2">Section 9.2</a>
   when processing Mobility Headers.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.3" href="#section-10.3">10.3</a>.  Processing Bindings</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.3.1" href="#section-10.3.1">10.3.1</a>.  Primary Care-of Address Registration</span>

   When a node receives a Binding Update, it MUST validate it and
   determine the type of Binding Update according to the steps described
   in <a href="#section-9.5.1">Section 9.5.1</a>.  Furthermore, it MUST authenticate the Binding
   Update as described in <a href="#section-5.1">Section 5.1</a>.  An authorization step specific
   for the home agent is also needed to ensure that only the right node
   can control a particular home address.  This is provided through the
   home address unequivocally identifying the security association that
   must be used.






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   This section describes the processing of a valid and authorized
   Binding Update when it requests the registration of the mobile node's
   primary care-of address.

   To begin processing the Binding Update, the home agent MUST perform
   the following sequence of tests:

   o  If the node implements only correspondent node functionality, or
      has not been configured to act as a home agent, then the node MUST
      reject the Binding Update.  The node MUST also return a Binding
      Acknowledgement to the mobile node, in which the Status field is
      set to 131 (home registration not supported).

   o  Else, if the home address for the binding (the Home Address field
      in the packet's Home Address option) is not an on-link IPv6
      address with respect to the home agent's current Prefix List, then
      the home agent MUST reject the Binding Update and SHOULD return a
      Binding Acknowledgement to the mobile node, in which the Status
      field is set to 132 (not home subnet).

   o  Else, if the home agent chooses to reject the Binding Update for
      any other reason (e.g., insufficient resources to serve another
      mobile node as a home agent), then the home agent SHOULD return a
      Binding Acknowledgement to the mobile node, in which the Status
      field is set to an appropriate value to indicate the reason for
      the rejection.

   o  A Home Address destination option MUST be present in the message.
      It MUST be validated as described in <a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a> with the
      following additional rule.  The Binding Cache entry existence test
      MUST NOT be done for IPsec packets when the Home Address option
      contains an address for which the receiving node could act as a
      home agent.

   If home agent accepts the Binding Update, it MUST then create a new
   entry in its Binding Cache for this mobile node or update its
   existing Binding Cache entry, if such an entry already exists.  The
   Home Address field as received in the Home Address option provides
   the home address of the mobile node.

   The home agent MUST mark this Binding Cache entry as a home
   registration to indicate that the node is serving as a home agent for
   this binding.  Binding Cache entries marked as a home registration
   MUST be excluded from the normal cache replacement policy used for
   the Binding Cache (<a href="#section-9.6">Section 9.6</a>) and MUST NOT be removed from the
   Binding Cache until the expiration of the Lifetime period.





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   Unless this home agent already has a binding for the given home
   address, the home agent MUST perform Duplicate Address Detection [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>]
   on the mobile node's home link before returning the Binding
   Acknowledgement.  This ensures that no other node on the home link
   was using the mobile node's home address when the Binding Update
   arrived.  If this Duplicate Address Detection fails for the given
   home address or an associated link local address, then the home agent
   MUST reject the complete Binding Update and MUST return a Binding
   Acknowledgement to the mobile node, in which the Status field is set
   to 134 (Duplicate Address Detection failed).  When the home agent
   sends a successful Binding Acknowledgement to the mobile node, the
   home agent assures to the mobile node that its address(es) will be
   kept unique by the home agent for as long as the lifetime was granted
   for the binding.

   The specific addresses, which are to be tested before accepting the
   Binding Update and later to be defended by performing Duplicate
   Address Detection, depend on the setting of the Link-Local Address
   Compatibility (L) bit, as follows:

   o  L=0: Defend only the given address.  Do not derive a link-local
      address.

   o  L=1: Defend both the given non link-local unicast (home) address
      and the derived link-local.  The link-local address is derived by
      replacing the subnet prefix in the mobile node's home address with
      the link-local prefix.

   The lifetime of the Binding Cache entry depends on a number of
   factors:

   o  The lifetime for the Binding Cache entry MUST NOT be greater than
      the Lifetime value specified in the Binding Update.

   o  The lifetime for the Binding Cache entry MUST NOT be greater than
      the remaining valid lifetime for the subnet prefix in the mobile
      node's home address specified with the Binding Update.  The
      remaining valid lifetime for this prefix is determined by the home
      agent based on its own Prefix List entry [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].

      The remaining preferred lifetime SHOULD NOT have any impact on the
      lifetime for the Binding Cache entry.

      The home agent MUST remove a binding when the valid lifetime of
      the prefix associated with it expires.






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   o  The home agent MAY further decrease the specified lifetime for the
      binding, for example, based on a local policy.  The resulting
      lifetime is stored by the home agent in the Binding Cache entry,
      and this Binding Cache entry MUST be deleted by the home agent
      after the expiration of this lifetime.

   Regardless of the setting of the Acknowledge (A) bit in the Binding
   Update, the home agent MUST return a Binding Acknowledgement to the
   mobile node constructed as follows:

   o  The Status field MUST be set to a value indicating success.  The
      value 1 (accepted but prefix discovery necessary) MUST be used if
      the subnet prefix of the specified home address is deprecated, or
      becomes deprecated during the lifetime of the binding, or becomes
      invalid at the end of the lifetime.  The value 0 MUST be used
      otherwise.  For the purposes of comparing the binding and prefix
      lifetimes, the prefix lifetimes are first converted into units of
      four seconds by ignoring the two least significant bits.

   o  The Key Management Mobility Capability (K) bit is set if the
      following conditions are all fulfilled, and cleared otherwise:

      *  The Key Management Mobility Capability (K) bit was set in the
         Binding Update.

      *  The IPsec security associations between the mobile node and the
         home agent have been established dynamically.

      *  The home agent has the capability to update its endpoint in the
         used key management protocol to the new care-of address every
         time it moves.

      Depending on the final value of the bit in the Binding
      Acknowledgement, the home agent SHOULD perform the following
      actions:

      K = 0

         Discard key management connections, if any, to the old care-of
         address.  If the mobile node did not have a binding before
         sending this Binding Update, discard the connections to the
         home address.

      K = 1

         Move the peer endpoint of the key management protocol
         connection, if any, to the new care-of address.




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   o  The Sequence Number field MUST be copied from the Sequence Number
      given in the Binding Update.

   o  The Lifetime field MUST be set to the remaining lifetime for the
      binding as set by the home agent in its home registration Binding
      Cache entry for the mobile node, as described above.

   o  If the home agent stores the Binding Cache entry in nonvolatile
      storage, then the Binding Refresh Advice mobility option MUST be
      omitted.  Otherwise, the home agent MAY include this option to
      suggest that the mobile node refreshes its binding before the
      actual lifetime of the binding ends.

      If the Binding Refresh Advice mobility option is present, the
      Refresh Interval field in the option MUST be set to a value less
      than the Lifetime value being returned in the Binding
      Acknowledgement.  This indicates that the mobile node SHOULD
      attempt to refresh its home registration at the indicated shorter
      interval.  The home agent MUST still retain the registration for
      the Lifetime period, even if the mobile node does not refresh its
      registration within the Refresh period.

   The rules for selecting the Destination IP address (and possibly
   routing header construction) for the Binding Acknowledgement to the
   mobile node are the same as in <a href="#section-9.5.4">Section 9.5.4</a>.

   In addition, the home agent MUST follow the procedure defined in
   <a href="#section-10.4.1">Section 10.4.1</a> to intercept packets on the mobile node's home link
   addressed to the mobile node, while the home agent is serving as the
   home agent for this mobile node.  The home agent MUST also be
   prepared to accept reverse-tunneled packets from the new care-of
   address of the mobile node, as described in <a href="#section-10.4.5">Section 10.4.5</a>.  Finally,
   the home agent MUST also propagate new home network prefixes, as
   described in <a href="#section-10.6">Section 10.6</a>.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.3.2" href="#section-10.3.2">10.3.2</a>.  Primary Care-of Address De-Registration</span>

   A binding may need to be de-registered when the mobile node returns
   home or when the mobile node knows that it will not have any care-of
   addresses in the visited network.

   A Binding Update is validated and authorized in the manner described
   in the previous section; note that when the mobile node de-registers
   when it is at home, it MAY choose to omit the Home Address
   destination option, in which case the mobile node's home address is
   the source IP address of the de-registration Binding Update.  This





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   section describes the processing of a valid Binding Update that
   requests the receiving node to no longer serve as its home agent, de-
   registering its primary care-of address.

   To begin processing the Binding Update, the home agent MUST perform
   the following test:

   o  If the receiving node has no entry marked as a home registration
      in its Binding Cache for this mobile node, then this node MUST
      reject the Binding Update and SHOULD return a Binding
      Acknowledgement to the mobile node, in which the Status field is
      set to 133 (not home agent for this mobile node).

   If the home agent does not reject the Binding Update as described
   above, then the home agent MUST return a Binding Acknowledgement to
   the mobile node, constructed as follows:

   o  The Status field MUST be set to a value 0, indicating success.

   o  The Key Management Mobility Capability (K) bit is set or cleared
      and actions based on its value are performed as described in the
      previous section.  The mobile node's home address is used as its
      new care-of address for the purposes of moving the key management
      connection to a new endpoint.

   o  The Sequence Number field MUST be copied from the Sequence Number
      given in the Binding Update.

   o  The Lifetime field MUST be set to zero.

   o  The Binding Refresh Advice mobility option MUST be omitted.

   The rules for selecting the Destination IP address (and, if required,
   routing header construction) for the Binding Acknowledgement to the
   mobile node are the same as in the previous section.  When the Status
   field in the Binding Acknowledgement is greater than or equal to 128
   and the Source Address of the Binding Update is on the home link, and
   the Binding Update came from a mobile node on the same link, the home
   agent MUST send it to the mobile node's link-layer address (retrieved
   either from the Binding Update or through Neighbor Solicitation).

   When a mobile node sends a Binding Update to refresh the binding from
   the visited link and soon after moves to the home link and sends a
   de-registration Binding Update, a race condition can happen if the
   first Binding Update gets delayed.  The delayed Binding Update can
   cause the home agent to create a new Binding Cache entry for a mobile





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   node that had just attached to the home link and successfully deleted
   the binding.  This would prevent the mobile node from using its home
   address from the home link.

   In order to prevent this, the home agent SHOULD NOT remove the
   Binding Cache entry immediately after receiving the de-registration
   Binding Update from the mobile node.  It SHOULD mark the Binding
   Cache entry as invalid, and MUST stop intercepting packets on the
   mobile node's home link that are addressed to the mobile node
   (<a href="#section-10.4.1">Section 10.4.1</a>).  The home agent should wait for
   MAX_DELETE_BCE_TIMEOUT (<a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>) seconds before removing the
   Binding Cache entry completely.  In the scenario described above, if
   the home agent receives the delayed Binding Update that the mobile
   node sent from the visited link, it would reject the message since
   the sequence number would be less than the last received de-
   registration Binding Update from the home link.  The home agent would
   then send a Binding Acknowledgment with status '135' (Sequence number
   out of window) to the care-of address on the visited link.  The
   mobile node can continue using the home address from the home link.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4" href="#section-10.4">10.4</a>.  Packet Processing</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4.1" href="#section-10.4.1">10.4.1</a>.  Intercepting Packets for a Mobile Node</span>

   While a node is serving as the home agent for a mobile node it MUST
   attempt to intercept packets on the mobile node's home link that are
   addressed to the mobile node.

   In order to do this, when a node begins serving as the home agent it
   MUST have performed Duplicate Address Detection (as specified in
   <a href="#section-10.3.1">Section 10.3.1</a>), and subsequently it MUST multicast onto the home
   link a Neighbor Advertisement message [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] on behalf of the mobile
   node.  For the home address specified in the Binding Update, the home
   agent sends a Neighbor Advertisement message [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] to the all-nodes
   multicast address on the home link to advertise the home agent's own
   link-layer address for this IP address on behalf of the mobile node.
   If the Link-Layer Address Compatibility (L) flag has been specified
   in the Binding Update, the home agent MUST do the same for the link-
   local address of the mobile node.

   All fields in each Neighbor Advertisement message SHOULD be set in
   the same way they would be set by the mobile node if it was sending
   this Neighbor Advertisement [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] while at home, with the following
   exceptions:

   o  The Target Address in the Neighbor Advertisement MUST be set to
      the specific IP address for the mobile node.




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   o  The Advertisement MUST include a Target Link-layer Address option
      specifying the home agent's link-layer address.

   o  The Router (R) bit in the Advertisement MUST be set to zero.

   o  The Solicited (S) flag in the Advertisement MUST NOT be set, since
      it was not solicited by any Neighbor Solicitation.

   o  The Override (O) flag in the Advertisement MUST be set, indicating
      that the Advertisement SHOULD override any existing Neighbor Cache
      entry at any node receiving it.

   o  The Source Address in the IPv6 header MUST be set to the home
      agent's IP address on the interface used to send the
      advertisement.

   Any node on the home link that receives one of the Neighbor
   Advertisement messages (described above) will update its Neighbor
   Cache to associate the mobile node's address with the home agent's
   link-layer address, causing it to transmit any future packets
   normally destined to the mobile node to the mobile node's home agent.
   Since multicasting on the local link (such as Ethernet) is typically
   not guaranteed to be reliable, the home agent MAY retransmit this
   Neighbor Advertisement message up to MAX_NEIGHBOR_ADVERTISEMENT (see
   [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]) times to increase its reliability.  It is still possible that
   some nodes on the home link will not receive any of the Neighbor
   Advertisements, but these nodes will eventually be able to detect the
   link-layer address change for the mobile node's address through use
   of Neighbor Unreachability Detection [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].

   While a node is serving as a home agent for some mobile node, the
   home agent uses IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] to intercept unicast
   packets on the home link addressed to the mobile node.  In order to
   intercept packets in this way, the home agent MUST act as a proxy for
   this mobile node and reply to any received Neighbor Solicitations for
   it.  When a home agent receives a Neighbor Solicitation, it MUST
   check if the Target Address specified in the message matches the
   address of any mobile node for which it has a Binding Cache entry
   marked as a home registration.

   If such an entry exists in the home agent's Binding Cache, the home
   agent MUST reply to the Neighbor Solicitation with a Neighbor
   Advertisement giving the home agent's own link-layer address as the
   link-layer address for the specified Target Address.  In addition,
   the Router (R) bit in the Advertisement MUST be set to zero.  Acting






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   as a proxy in this way allows other nodes on the mobile node's home
   link to resolve the mobile node's address and for the home agent to
   defend these addresses on the home link for Duplicate Address
   Detection [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4.2" href="#section-10.4.2">10.4.2</a>.  Processing Intercepted Packets</span>

   For any packet sent to a mobile node from the mobile node's home
   agent (in which the home agent is the original sender of the packet),
   the home agent is operating as a correspondent node of the mobile
   node for this packet and the procedures described in <a href="#section-9.3.2">Section 9.3.2</a>
   apply.  The home agent then uses a routing header to route the packet
   to the mobile node by way of the primary care-of address in the home
   agent's Binding Cache.

   While the mobile node is away from home, the home agent intercepts
   any packets on the home link addressed to the mobile node's home
   address, as described in <a href="#section-10.4.1">Section 10.4.1</a>.  In order to forward each
   intercepted packet to the mobile node, the home agent MUST tunnel the
   packet to the mobile node using IPv6 encapsulation [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>].  When a home
   agent encapsulates an intercepted packet for forwarding to the mobile
   node, the home agent sets the Source Address in the new tunnel IP
   header to the home agent's own IP address and sets the Destination
   Address in the tunnel IP header to the mobile node's primary care-of
   address.  When received by the mobile node, normal processing of the
   tunnel header [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>] will result in decapsulation and processing of the
   original packet by the mobile node.

   However, packets addressed to the mobile node's link-local address
   MUST NOT be tunneled to the mobile node.  Instead, these packets MUST
   be discarded and the home agent SHOULD return an ICMP Destination
   Unreachable, Code 3, message to the packet's Source Address (unless
   this Source Address is a multicast address).

   Interception and tunneling of the following multicast addressed
   packets on the home network are only done if the home agent supports
   multicast group membership control messages from the mobile node as
   described in the next section.  Tunneling of multicast packets to a
   mobile node follows similar limitations to those defined above for
   unicast packets addressed to the mobile node's link-local address.
   Multicast packets addressed to a multicast address with link-local
   scope [<a href="#ref-16" title="&quot;IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture&quot;">16</a>], to which the mobile node is subscribed, MUST NOT be
   tunneled to the mobile node.  These packets SHOULD be silently
   discarded (after delivering to other local multicast recipients).
   Multicast packets addressed to a multicast address with a scope
   larger than link-local, but smaller than global (e.g., site-local and
   organization-local [<a href="#ref-16" title="&quot;IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture&quot;">16</a>]), to which the mobile node is subscribed,




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   SHOULD NOT be tunneled to the mobile node.  Multicast packets
   addressed with a global scope, to which the mobile node has
   successfully subscribed, MUST be tunneled to the mobile node.

   Before tunneling a packet to the mobile node, the home agent MUST
   perform any IPsec processing as indicated by the security policy data
   base.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4.3" href="#section-10.4.3">10.4.3</a>.  Multicast Membership Control</span>

   This section is a prerequisite for the multicast data packet
   forwarding, described in the previous section.  If this support is
   not provided, multicast group membership control messages are
   silently ignored.

   In order to forward multicast data packets from the home network to
   all the proper mobile nodes, the home agent SHOULD be capable of
   receiving tunneled multicast group membership control information
   from the mobile node in order to determine which groups the mobile
   node has subscribed to.  These multicast group membership messages
   are Listener Report messages specified in Multicast Listener
   Discovery (MLD) [<a href="#ref-9" title="&quot;Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6&quot;">9</a>] or in other protocols such as [<a href="#ref-41" title="&quot;Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 (MLDv2) for IPv6&quot;">41</a>].

   The messages are issued by the mobile node, but sent through the
   reverse tunnel to the home agent.  These messages are issued whenever
   the mobile node decides to enable reception of packets for a
   multicast group or in response to an MLD Query from the home agent.
   The mobile node will also issue multicast group control messages to
   disable reception of multicast packets when it is no longer
   interested in receiving multicasts for a particular group.

   To obtain the mobile node's current multicast group membership the
   home agent must periodically transmit MLD Query messages through the
   tunnel to the mobile node.  These MLD periodic transmissions will
   ensure the home agent has an accurate record of the groups in which
   the mobile node is interested despite packet losses of the mobile
   node's MLD group membership messages.

   All MLD packets are sent directly between the mobile node and the
   home agent.  Since all of these packets are destined to a link-scope
   multicast address and have a hop limit of 1, there is no direct
   forwarding of such packets between the home network and the mobile
   node.  The MLD packets between the mobile node and the home agent are
   encapsulated within the same tunnel header used for other packet
   flows between the mobile node and home agent.






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   Note that at this time, even though a link-local source is used on
   MLD packets, no functionality depends on these addresses being
   unique, nor do they elicit direct responses.  All MLD messages are
   sent to multicast destinations.  To avoid ambiguity on the home
   agent, due to mobile nodes that may choose identical link-local
   source addresses for their MLD function, it is necessary for the home
   agent to identify which mobile node was actually the issuer of a
   particular MLD message.  This may be accomplished by noting which
   tunnel such an MLD arrived by, which IPsec security association (SA)
   was used, or by other distinguishing means.

   This specification puts no requirement on how the functions in this
   section and the multicast forwarding in <a href="#section-10.4.2">Section 10.4.2</a> are to be
   achieved.  At the time of this writing, it was thought that a full
   IPv6 multicast router function would be necessary on the home agent,
   but it may be possible to achieve the same effects through a "proxy
   MLD" application coupled with kernel multicast forwarding.  This may
   be the subject of future specifications.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4.4" href="#section-10.4.4">10.4.4</a>.  Stateful Address Autoconfiguration</span>

   This section describes how home agents support the use of stateful
   address autoconfiguration mechanisms such as DHCPv6 [<a href="#ref-31" title="&quot;Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)&quot;">31</a>] from the
   mobile nodes.  If this support is not provided, then the M and O bits
   must remain cleared on the Mobile Prefix Advertisement Messages.  Any
   mobile node that sends DHCPv6 messages to the home agent without this
   support will not receive a response.

   If DHCPv6 is used, packets are sent with link-local source addresses
   either to a link-scope multicast address or a link-local address.
   Mobile nodes desiring to locate a DHCPv6 service may reverse tunnel
   standard DHCPv6 packets to the home agent.  Since these link-scope
   packets cannot be forwarded onto the home network, it is necessary
   for the home agent to implement either a DHCPv6 relay agent or a
   DHCPv6 server function itself.  The arriving tunnel or IPsec SA of
   DHCPv6 link-scope messages from the mobile node must be noted so that
   DHCPv6 responses may be sent back to the appropriate mobile node.
   DHCPv6 messages sent to the mobile node with a link-local destination
   must be tunneled within the same tunnel header used for other packet
   flows.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4.5" href="#section-10.4.5">10.4.5</a>.  Handling Reverse-Tunneled Packets</span>

   Unless a binding has been established between the mobile node and a
   correspondent node, traffic from the mobile node to the correspondent
   node goes through a reverse tunnel.  Home agents MUST support reverse
   tunneling as follows:




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   o  The tunneled traffic arrives to the home agent's address using
      IPv6 encapsulation [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>].

   o  Depending on the security policies used by the home agent,
      reverse-tunneled packets MAY be discarded unless accompanied by a
      valid ESP header.  The support for authenticated reverse tunneling
      allows the home agent to protect the home network and
      correspondent nodes from malicious nodes masquerading as a mobile
      node.

   o  Otherwise, when a home agent decapsulates a tunneled packet from
      the mobile node, the home agent MUST verify that the Source
      Address in the tunnel IP header is the mobile node's primary
      care-of address.  Otherwise, any node in the Internet could send
      traffic through the home agent and escape ingress filtering
      limitations.  This simple check forces the attacker to know the
      current location of the real mobile node and be able to defeat
      ingress filtering.  This check is not necessary if the reverse-
      tunneled packet is protected by ESP in tunnel mode.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.4.6" href="#section-10.4.6">10.4.6</a>.  Protecting Return Routability Packets</span>

   The return routability procedure, described in <a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>, assumes
   that the confidentiality of the Home Test Init and Home Test messages
   is protected as they are tunneled between the home agent and the
   mobile node.  Therefore, the home agent MUST support tunnel mode
   IPsec ESP for the protection of packets belonging to the return
   routability procedure.  Support for a non-null encryption transform
   and authentication algorithm MUST be available.  It is not necessary
   to distinguish between different kinds of packets during the return
   routability procedure.

   Security associations are needed to provide this protection.  When
   the care-of address for the mobile node changes as a result of an
   accepted Binding Update, special treatment is needed for the next
   packets sent using these security associations.  The home agent MUST
   set the new care-of address as the destination address of these
   packets, as if the outer header destination address in the security
   association had changed.

   The above protection SHOULD be used with all mobile nodes.  The use
   is controlled by configuration of the IPsec security policy database
   both at the mobile node and at the home agent.

   As described earlier, the Binding Update and Binding Acknowledgement
   messages require protection between the home agent and the mobile
   node.  The Mobility Header protocol carries both these messages as
   well as the return routability messages.  From the point of view of



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   the security policy database these messages are indistinguishable.
   When IPsec is used to protect return routability signaling or payload
   packets, this protection MUST only be applied to the return
   routability packets entering the IPv6 encapsulated tunnel interface
   between the mobile node and the home agent.  This can be achieved,
   for instance, by defining the security policy database entries
   specifically for the tunnel interface.  That is, the policy entries
   are not generally applied on all traffic on the physical interface(s)
   of the nodes, but rather only on traffic that enters the tunnel.
   This makes use of per-interface security policy database entries [<a href="#ref-3" title="&quot;Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol&quot;">3</a>]
   specific to the tunnel interface (the node's attachment to the tunnel
   [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>]).

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.5" href="#section-10.5">10.5</a>.  Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery</span>

   This section describes an optional mechanism by which a home agent
   can help mobile nodes to discover the addresses of other home agents
   on the mobile node's home network.  The home agent keeps track of the
   other home agents on the same link and responds to queries sent by
   the mobile node.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.5.1" href="#section-10.5.1">10.5.1</a>.  Receiving Router Advertisement Messages</span>

   For each link on which a router provides service as a home agent, the
   router maintains a Home Agents List recording information about all
   other home agents on that link.  This list is used in the dynamic
   home agent address discovery mechanism; the mobile node uses the list
   as described in <a href="#section-11.4.1">Section 11.4.1</a>.  The information for the list is
   learned through receipt of the periodic unsolicited multicast Router
   Advertisements, in a manner similar to the Default Router List
   conceptual data structure maintained by each host for Neighbor
   Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].  In the construction of the Home Agents List, the
   Router Advertisements are from each (other) home agent on the link
   and the Home Agent (H) bit is set in them.

   On receipt of a valid Router Advertisement, as defined in the
   processing algorithm specified for Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>], the home
   agent performs the following steps in addition to any steps already
   required of it by Neighbor Discovery:

   o  If the Home Agent (H) bit in the Router Advertisement is not set,
      delete the sending node's entry in the current Home Agents List
      (if one exists).  Skip all the following steps.

   o  Otherwise, extract the Source Address from the IP header of the
      Router Advertisement.  This is the link-local IP address on this
      link of the home agent sending this Advertisement [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].




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   o  Determine the preference for this home agent.  If the Router
      Advertisement contains a Home Agent Information Option, then the
      preference is taken from the Home Agent Preference field in the
      option; otherwise, the default preference of 0 MUST be used.

   o  Determine the lifetime for this home agent.  If the Router
      Advertisement contains a Home Agent Information Option, then the
      lifetime is taken from the Home Agent Lifetime field in the
      option; otherwise, the lifetime specified by the Router Lifetime
      field in the Router Advertisement SHOULD be used.

   o  If the link-local address of the home agent sending this
      Advertisement is already present in this home agent's Home Agents
      List and the received home agent lifetime value is zero,
      immediately delete this entry in the Home Agents List.

   o  Otherwise, if the link-local address of the home agent sending
      this Advertisement is already present in the receiving home
      agent's Home Agents List, reset its lifetime and preference to the
      values determined above.

   o  If the link-local address of the home agent sending this
      Advertisement is not already present in the Home Agents List
      maintained by the receiving home agent, and the lifetime for the
      sending home agent is non-zero, create a new entry in the list,
      and initialize its lifetime and preference to the values
      determined above.

   o  If the Home Agents List entry for the link-local address of the
      home agent sending this Advertisement was not deleted as described
      above, determine any global address(es) of the home agent based on
      each Prefix Information option received in this Advertisement in
      which the Router Address (R) bit is set (<a href="#section-7.2">Section 7.2</a>).  Add all
      such global addresses to the list of global addresses in this Home
      Agents List entry.

   A home agent SHOULD maintain an entry in its Home Agents List for
   each valid home agent address until that entry's lifetime expires,
   after which time the entry MUST be deleted.

   As described in <a href="#section-11.4.1">Section 11.4.1</a>, a mobile node attempts dynamic home
   agent address discovery by sending an ICMP Home Agent Address
   Discovery Request message to the Mobile IPv6 Home-Agents anycast
   address [<a href="#ref-8" title="&quot;Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses&quot;">8</a>] for its home IP subnet prefix.  A home agent receiving a
   Home Agent Address Discovery Request message that serves this subnet
   SHOULD return an ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Reply message to





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   the mobile node with the Source Address of the Reply packet set to
   one of the global unicast addresses of the home agent.  The Home
   Agent Addresses field in the Reply message is constructed as follows:

   o  The Home Agent Addresses field SHOULD contain all global IP
      addresses for each home agent currently listed in this home
      agent's own Home Agents List (<a href="#section-10.1">Section 10.1</a>).

   o  The IP addresses in the Home Agent Addresses field SHOULD be
      listed in order of decreasing preference values, based either on
      the respective advertised preference from a Home Agent Information
      option or on the default preference of 0 if no preference is
      advertised (or on the configured home agent preference for this
      home agent itself).

   o  Among home agents with equal preference, their IP addresses in the
      Home Agent Addresses field SHOULD be listed in an order randomized
      with respect to other home agents with equal preference every time
      a Home Agent Address Discovery Reply message is returned by this
      home agent.

   o  If more than one global IP address is associated with a home
      agent, these addresses SHOULD be listed in a randomized order.

   o  The home agent SHOULD reduce the number of home agent IP addresses
      so that the packet fits within the minimum IPv6 MTU [<a href="#ref-6" title="&quot;Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">6</a>].  The home
      agent addresses selected for inclusion in the packet SHOULD be
      those from the complete list with the highest preference.  This
      limitation avoids the danger of the Reply message packet being
      fragmented (or rejected by an intermediate router with an ICMP
      Packet Too Big message [<a href="#ref-17" title="&quot;Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification&quot;">17</a>]).

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.6" href="#section-10.6">10.6</a>.  Sending Prefix Information to the Mobile Node</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.6.1" href="#section-10.6.1">10.6.1</a>.  List of Home Network Prefixes</span>

   Mobile IPv6 arranges to propagate relevant prefix information to the
   mobile node when it is away from home, so that it may be used in
   mobile node home address configuration and in network renumbering.
   In this mechanism, mobile nodes away from home receive Mobile Prefix
   Advertisement messages.  These messages include Prefix Information
   Options for the prefixes configured on the home subnet interface(s)
   of the home agent.

   If there are multiple home agents, differences in the advertisements
   sent by different home agents can lead to an inability to use a
   particular home address when changing to another home agent.  In




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   order to ensure that the mobile nodes get the same information from
   different home agents, it is preferred that all of the home agents on
   the same link be configured in the same manner.

   To support this, the home agent monitors prefixes advertised by
   itself and other home agents on the home link.  In Neighbor Discovery
   (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]) it is acceptable for two routers to advertise
   different sets of prefixes on the same link.  For home agents, the
   differences should be detected for a given home address because the
   mobile node communicates only with one home agent at a time and the
   mobile node needs to know the full set of prefixes assigned to the
   home link.  All other comparisons of Router Advertisements are as
   specified in <a href="./rfc4861#section-6.2.7">Section&nbsp;6.2.7 of RFC 4861</a>.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.6.2" href="#section-10.6.2">10.6.2</a>.  Scheduling Prefix Deliveries</span>

   A home agent serving a mobile node will schedule the delivery of the
   new prefix information to that mobile node when any of the following
   conditions occur:

   MUST:

   o  The state of the flags changes for the prefix of the mobile node's
      registered home address.

   o  The valid or preferred lifetime is reconfigured or changes for any
      reason other than advancing real time.

   o  The mobile node requests the information with a Mobile Prefix
      Solicitation (see <a href="#section-11.4.2">Section 11.4.2</a>).

   SHOULD:

   o  A new prefix is added to the home subnet interface(s) of the home
      agent.

   MAY:

   o  The valid or preferred lifetime or the state of the flags changes
      for a prefix that is not used in any Binding Cache entry for this
      mobile node.

   The home agent uses the following algorithm to determine when to send
   prefix information to the mobile node.

   o  If a mobile node sends a solicitation, answer right away.





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   o  If no Mobile Prefix Advertisement has been sent to the mobile node
      in the last MaxMobPfxAdvInterval seconds (see <a href="#section-13">Section 13</a>), then
      ensure that a transmission is scheduled.  The actual transmission
      time is randomized as described below.

   o  If a prefix matching the mobile node's home registration is added
      on the home subnet interface or if its information changes in any
      way that does not deprecate the mobile node's address, ensure that
      a transmission is scheduled.  The actual transmission time is
      randomized as described below.

   o  If a home registration expires, cancel any scheduled
      advertisements to the mobile node.

   The list of prefixes is sent in its entirety in all cases.

   If the home agent has already scheduled the transmission of a Mobile
   Prefix Advertisement to the mobile node, then the home agent will
   replace the advertisement with a new one to be sent at the scheduled
   time.

   Otherwise, the home agent computes a fresh value for RAND_ADV_DELAY
   that offsets from the current time for the scheduled transmission.
   First, calculate the maximum delay for the scheduled Advertisement:


     MaxScheduleDelay = min (MaxMobPfxAdvInterval, Preferred Lifetime),

   where MaxMobPfxAdvInterval is as defined in <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>.  Then,
   compute the final delay for the advertisement:


     RAND_ADV_DELAY = MinMobPfxAdvInterval +
           (rand() % abs(MaxScheduleDelay - MinMobPfxAdvInterval))

   Here rand() returns a random integer value in the range of 0 to the
   maximum possible integer value.  This computation is expected to
   alleviate bursts of advertisements when prefix information changes.
   In addition, a home agent MAY further reduce the rate of packet
   transmission by further delaying individual advertisements, when
   necessary to avoid overwhelming local network resources.  The home
   agent SHOULD periodically continue to retransmit an unsolicited
   Advertisement to the mobile node, until it is acknowledged by the
   receipt of a Mobile Prefix Solicitation from the mobile node.

   The home agent MUST wait PREFIX_ADV_TIMEOUT (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>) before
   the first retransmission and double the retransmission wait time for
   every succeeding retransmission until a maximum number of



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   PREFIX_ADV_RETRIES attempts (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>) has been tried.  If the
   mobile node's bindings expire before the matching Binding Update has
   been received, then the home agent MUST NOT attempt any more
   retransmissions, even if not all PREFIX_ADV_RETRIES have been
   retransmitted.  In the meantime, if the mobile node sends another
   Binding Update without returning home, then the home agent SHOULD
   begin transmitting the unsolicited Advertisement again.

   If some condition, as described above, occurs on the home link and
   causes another Prefix Advertisement to be sent to the mobile node,
   before the mobile node acknowledges a previous transmission, the home
   agent SHOULD combine any Prefix Information options in the
   unacknowledged Mobile Prefix Advertisement into a new Advertisement.
   The home agent then discards the old Advertisement.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.6.3" href="#section-10.6.3">10.6.3</a>.  Sending Advertisements</span>

   When sending a Mobile Prefix Advertisement to the mobile node, the
   home agent MUST construct the packet as follows:

   o  The Source Address in the packet's IPv6 header MUST be set to the
      home agent's IP address to which the mobile node addressed its
      current home registration or its default global home agent address
      if no binding exists.

   o  If the advertisement was solicited, it MUST be destined to the
      source address of the solicitation.  If it was triggered by prefix
      changes or renumbering, the advertisement's destination will be
      the mobile node's home address in the binding that triggered the
      rule.

   o  A type 2 routing header MUST be included with the mobile node's
      home address.

   o  IPsec headers MUST be supported and SHOULD be used.

   o  The home agent MUST send the packet as it would any other unicast
      IPv6 packet that it originates.

   o  Set the Managed Address Configuration (M) flag if the
      corresponding flag has been set in any of the Router
      Advertisements from which the prefix information has been learned
      (including the ones sent by this home agent).

   o  Set the Other Stateful Configuration (O) flag if the corresponding
      flag has been set in any of the Router Advertisements from which
      the prefix information has been learned (including the ones sent
      by this home agent).



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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-10.6.4" href="#section-10.6.4">10.6.4</a>.  Lifetimes for Changed Prefixes</span>

   As described in <a href="#section-10.3.1">Section 10.3.1</a>, the lifetime returned by the home
   agent in a Binding Acknowledgement MUST NOT be greater than the
   remaining valid lifetime for the subnet prefix in the mobile node's
   home address.  This limit on the binding lifetime serves to prohibit
   use of a mobile node's home address after it becomes invalid.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-11" href="#section-11">11</a>.  Mobile Node Operation</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.1" href="#section-11.1">11.1</a>.  Conceptual Data Structures</span>

   Each mobile node MUST maintain a Binding Update List.

   The Binding Update List records information for each Binding Update
   sent by this mobile node, in which the lifetime of the binding has
   not yet expired.  The Binding Update List includes all bindings sent
   by the mobile node to either its home agent or correspondent nodes.
   It also contains Binding Updates that are waiting for the completion
   of the return routability procedure before they can be sent.
   However, for multiple Binding Updates sent to the same destination
   address, the Binding Update List contains only the most recent
   Binding Update (i.e., with the greatest Sequence Number value) sent
   to that destination.  The Binding Update List MAY be implemented in
   any manner consistent with the external behavior described in this
   document.

   Each Binding Update List entry conceptually contains the following
   fields:

   o  The IP address of the node to which a Binding Update was sent.

   o  The home address for which that Binding Update was sent.

   o  The care-of address sent in that Binding Update.  This value is
      necessary for the mobile node to determine if it has sent a
      Binding Update while giving its new care-of address to this
      destination after changing its care-of address.

   o  The initial value of the Lifetime field sent in that Binding
      Update.

   o  The remaining lifetime of that binding.  This lifetime is
      initialized from the Lifetime value sent in the Binding Update and
      is decremented until it reaches zero, at which time this entry
      MUST be deleted from the Binding Update List.





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   o  The maximum value of the Sequence Number field sent in previous
      Binding Updates to this destination.  The Sequence Number field is
      16 bits long and all comparisons between Sequence Number values
      MUST be performed modulo 2**16 (see <a href="#section-9.5.1">Section 9.5.1</a>).

   o  The time at which a Binding Update was last sent to this
      destination, as needed to implement the rate limiting restriction
      for sending Binding Updates.

   o  The state of any retransmissions needed for this Binding Update.
      This state includes the time remaining until the next
      retransmission attempt for the Binding Update and the current
      state of the exponential back-off mechanism for retransmissions.

   o  A flag specifying whether or not future Binding Updates should be
      sent to this destination.  The mobile node sets this flag in the
      Binding Update List entry when it receives an ICMP Parameter
      Problem, Code 1, error message in response to a return routability
      message or Binding Update sent to that destination, as described
      in <a href="#section-11.3.5">Section 11.3.5</a>.

   The Binding Update List is used to determine whether a particular
   packet is sent directly to the correspondent node or tunneled via the
   home agent (see <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a>).

   The Binding Update list also conceptually contains the following data
   related to running the return routability procedure.  This data is
   relevant only for Binding Updates sent to correspondent nodes.

   o  The time at which a Home Test Init or Care-of Test Init message
      was last sent to this destination, as needed to implement the rate
      limiting restriction for the return routability procedure.

   o  The state of any retransmissions needed for this return
      routability procedure.  This state includes the time remaining
      until the next retransmission attempt and the current state of the
      exponential back-off mechanism for retransmissions.

   o  Cookie values used in the Home Test Init and Care-of Test Init
      messages.

   o  Home and care-of keygen tokens received from the correspondent
      node.

   o  Home and care-of nonce indices received from the correspondent
      node.





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   o  The time at which each of the tokens and nonces were received from
      the correspondent node, as needed to implement reuse while moving.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.2" href="#section-11.2">11.2</a>.  Processing Mobility Headers</span>

   All IPv6 mobile nodes MUST observe the rules described in <a href="#section-9.2">Section 9.2</a>
   when processing Mobility Headers.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3" href="#section-11.3">11.3</a>.  Packet Processing</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3.1" href="#section-11.3.1">11.3.1</a>.  Sending Packets While Away from Home</span>

   While a mobile node is away from home, it continues to use its home
   address, as well as also using one or more care-of addresses.  When
   sending a packet while away from home, a mobile node MAY choose among
   these in selecting the address that it will use as the source of the
   packet, as follows:

   o  Protocols layered over IP will generally treat the mobile node's
      home address as its IP source address for most packets.  For
      packets sent that are part of transport-level connections
      established while the mobile node was at home, the mobile node
      MUST use its home address.  Likewise, for packets sent that are
      part of transport-level connections that the mobile node may still
      be using after moving to a new location, the mobile node SHOULD
      use its home address in this way.  If a binding exists, the mobile
      node SHOULD send the packets directly to the correspondent node.
      Otherwise, if a binding does not exist, the mobile node MUST use
      reverse tunneling.

   o  The mobile node MAY choose to directly use one of its care-of
      addresses as the source of the packet, not requiring the use of a
      Home Address option in the packet.  This is particularly useful
      for short-term communication that may easily be retried if it
      fails.  Using the mobile node's care-of address as the source for
      such queries will generally have a lower overhead than using the
      mobile node's home address, since no extra options need to be used
      in either the query or its reply.  Such packets can be routed
      normally, directly between their source and destination without
      relying on Mobile IPv6.  If application running on the mobile node
      has no particular knowledge that the communication being sent fits
      within this general type of communication, however, the mobile
      node should not use its care-of address as the source of the
      packet in this way.







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      The choice of the most efficient communications method is
      application specific, and outside the scope of this specification.
      The APIs necessary for controlling the choice are also out of
      scope.  One example of such an API is described in the IPv6 Socket
      API for Source Address Selection specification [<a href="#ref-44" title="&quot;IPv6 Socket API for Source Address Selection&quot;">44</a>].

   o  While not at its home link, the mobile node MUST NOT use the Home
      Address destination option when communicating with link-local
      peers.

      Similarly, the mobile node MUST NOT use the Home Address
      destination option for IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] packets.

   Detailed operation of these cases is described later in this section
   and also discussed in [<a href="#ref-33" title="&quot;Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">33</a>].

   For packets sent by a mobile node while it is at home, no special
   Mobile IPv6 processing is required.  Likewise, if the mobile node
   uses any address other than one of its home addresses as the source
   of a packet sent while away from home, no special Mobile IPv6
   processing is required.  In either case, the packet is simply
   addressed and transmitted in the same way as any normal IPv6 packet.

   For packets sent by the mobile node sent while away from home using
   the mobile node's home address as the source, special Mobile IPv6
   processing of the packet is required.  This can be done in the
   following two ways:

   Route Optimization

      This manner of delivering packets does not require going through
      the home network, and typically will enable faster and more
      reliable transmission.

      The mobile node needs to ensure that a Binding Cache entry exists
      for its home address so that the correspondent node can process
      the packet (<a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a> specifies the rules for Home Address
      Destination Option Processing at a correspondent node).  The
      mobile node SHOULD examine its Binding Update List for an entry
      that fulfills the following conditions:

      *  The Source Address field of the packet being sent is equal to
         the home address in the entry.

      *  The Destination Address field of the packet being sent is equal
         to the address of the correspondent node in the entry.





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      *  One of the current care-of addresses of the mobile node appears
         as the care-of address in the entry.

      *  The entry indicates that a binding has been successfully
         created.

      *  The remaining lifetime of the binding is greater than zero.


      When these conditions are met, the mobile node knows that the
      correspondent node has a suitable Binding Cache entry.

      A mobile node SHOULD arrange to supply the home address in a Home
      Address option, and MUST set the IPv6 header's Source Address
      field to the care-of address that the mobile node has registered
      to be used with this correspondent node.  The correspondent node
      will then use the address supplied in the Home Address option to
      serve the function traditionally done by the Source IP address in
      the IPv6 header.  The mobile node's home address is then supplied
      to higher protocol layers and applications.

      Specifically:

      *  Construct the packet using the mobile node's home address as
         the packet's Source Address, in the same way as if the mobile
         node were at home.  This includes the calculation of upper-
         layer checksums using the home address as the value of the
         source.

      *  Insert a Home Address option into the packet with the Home
         Address field copied from the original value of the Source
         Address field in the packet.

      *  Change the Source Address field in the packet's IPv6 header to
         one of the mobile node's care-of addresses.  This will
         typically be the mobile node's current primary care-of address,
         but MUST be an address assigned to the interface on the link
         being used.

      By using the care-of address as the Source Address in the IPv6
      header, with the mobile node's home address instead in the Home
      Address option, the packet will be able to safely pass through any
      router implementing ingress filtering [<a href="#ref-27" title="&quot;Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing&quot;">27</a>].








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   Reverse Tunneling

      This is the mechanism that tunnels the packets via the home agent.
      It is not as efficient as the above mechanism, but is needed if
      there is no binding yet with the correspondent node.

      This mechanism is used for packets that have the mobile node's
      home address as the Source Address in the IPv6 header, or with
      multicast control protocol packets as described in <a href="#section-11.3.4">Section 11.3.4</a>.
      Specifically:

      *  The packet is sent to the home agent using IPv6 encapsulation
         [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>].

      *  The Source Address in the tunnel packet is the primary care-of
         address as registered with the home agent.

      *  The Destination Address in the tunnel packet is the home
         agent's address.

      Then, the home agent will pass the encapsulated packet to the
      correspondent node.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3.2" href="#section-11.3.2">11.3.2</a>.  Interaction with Outbound IPsec Processing</span>

   This section sketches the interaction between outbound Mobile IPv6
   processing and outbound IP Security (IPsec) processing for packets
   sent by a mobile node while away from home.  Any specific
   implementation MAY use algorithms and data structures other than
   those suggested here, but its processing MUST be consistent with the
   effect of the operation described here and with the relevant IPsec
   specifications.  In the steps described below, it is assumed that
   IPsec is being used in transport mode [<a href="#ref-3" title="&quot;Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol&quot;">3</a>] and that the mobile node is
   using its home address as the source for the packet (from the point
   of view of higher protocol layers or applications, as described in
   <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a>):

   o  The packet is created by higher-layer protocols and applications
      (e.g., by TCP) as if the mobile node were at home and Mobile IPv6
      were not being used.

   o  Determine the outgoing interface for the packet.  (Note that the
      selection between reverse tunneling and route optimization may
      imply different interfaces, particularly if tunnels are considered
      interfaces as well.)






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   o  As part of outbound packet processing in IP, the packet is
      compared against the IPsec security policy database to determine
      what processing is required for the packet [<a href="#ref-3" title="&quot;Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol&quot;">3</a>].

   o  If IPsec processing is required, the packet is either mapped to an
      existing security association (or SA bundle), or a new SA (or SA
      bundle) is created for the packet, according to the procedures
      defined for IPsec.

   o  Since the mobile node is away from home, the mobile is using
      either reverse tunneling or route optimization to reach the
      correspondent node.

      If reverse tunneling is used, the packet is constructed in the
      normal manner and then tunneled through the home agent.

      If route optimization is in use, the mobile node inserts a Home
      Address destination option into the packet, replacing the Source
      Address in the packet's IP header with the care-of address used
      with this correspondent node, as described in <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a>.  The
      Destination Options header in which the Home Address destination
      option is inserted MUST appear in the packet after the routing
      header, if present, and before the IPsec (AH [<a href="#ref-4" title="&quot;IP Authentication Header&quot;">4</a>] or ESP [<a href="#ref-5" title="&quot;IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)&quot;">5</a>])
      header, so that the Home Address destination option is processed
      by the destination node before the IPsec header is processed.

      Finally, once the packet is fully assembled, the necessary IPsec
      authentication (and encryption, if required) processing is
      performed on the packet, initializing the Authentication Data in
      the IPsec header.

      The treatment of destination options described in <a href="./rfc4302">RFC 4302</a> is
      extended as follows.  The AH authentication data MUST be
      calculated as if the following were true:

      *  the IPv6 source address in the IPv6 header contains the mobile
         node's home address, and

      *  the Home Address field of the Home Address destination option
         (<a href="#section-6.3">Section 6.3</a>) contains the new care-of address.

   o  This allows, but does not require, the receiver of the packet
      containing a Home Address destination option to exchange the two
      fields of the incoming packet to reach the above situation,
      simplifying processing for all subsequent packet headers.
      However, such an exchange is not required, as long as the result
      of the authentication calculation remains the same.




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   When an automated key management protocol is used to create new
   security associations for a peer, it is important to ensure that the
   peer can send the key management protocol packets to the mobile node.
   This may not be possible if the peer is the home agent of the mobile
   node and the purpose of the security associations would be to send a
   Binding Update to the home agent.  Packets addressed to the home
   address of the mobile node cannot be used before the Binding Update
   has been processed.  For the default case of using IKEv2 [<a href="#ref-24" title="&quot;Internet Key Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)&quot;">24</a>] as the
   automated key management protocol, such problems can be avoided by
   the following requirements when communicating with its home agent:

   o  When the mobile node is away from home, it MUST use its care-of
      address as the Source Address of all packets it sends as part of
      the key management protocol (without use of Mobile IPv6 for these
      packets, as suggested in <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a>).

   The Key Management Mobility Capability (K) bit in Binding Updates and
   Acknowledgements can be used to avoid the need to rerun IKEv2 upon
   movements.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3.3" href="#section-11.3.3">11.3.3</a>.  Receiving Packets While Away from Home</span>

   While away from home, a mobile node will receive packets addressed to
   its home address, by one of two methods:

   o  Packets sent by a correspondent node that does not have a Binding
      Cache entry for the mobile node will be sent to the home address,
      captured by the home agent and tunneled to the mobile node.

   o  Packets sent by a correspondent node that has a Binding Cache
      entry for the mobile node that contains the mobile node's current
      care-of address will be sent by the correspondent node using a
      type 2 routing header.  The packet will be addressed to the mobile
      node's care-of address, with the final hop in the routing header
      directing the packet to the mobile node's home address; the
      processing of this last hop of the routing header is entirely
      internal to the mobile node, since the care-of address and home
      address are both addresses within the mobile node.

   For packets received by the first method, the mobile node MUST check
   that the IPv6 source address of the tunneled packet is the IP address
   of its home agent.  In this method, the mobile node may also send a
   Binding Update to the original sender of the packet as described in
   <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a> and subject to the rate limiting defined in
   <a href="#section-11.8">Section 11.8</a>.  The mobile node MUST also process the received packet
   in the manner defined for IPv6 encapsulation [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>], which will result





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   in the encapsulated (inner) packet being processed normally by upper-
   layer protocols within the mobile node as if it had been addressed
   (only) to the mobile node's home address.

   For packets received by the second method, the following rules will
   result in the packet being processed normally by upper-layer
   protocols within the mobile node as if it had been addressed to the
   mobile node's home address.

   A node receiving a packet addressed to itself (i.e., one of the
   node's addresses is in the IPv6 destination field) follows the next
   header chain of headers and processes them.  When it encounters a
   type 2 routing header during this processing, it performs the
   following checks.  If any of these checks fail, the node MUST
   silently discard the packet.

   o  The length field in the routing header is exactly 2.

   o  The segments left field in the routing header is 1 on the wire.
      (But implementations may process the routing header so that the
      value may become 0 after the routing header has been processed,
      but before the rest of the packet is processed.)

   o  The Home Address field in the routing header is one of the node's
      home addresses, if the segments left field was 1.  Thus, in
      particular the address field is required to be a unicast routable
      address.

   Once the above checks have been performed, the node swaps the IPv6
   destination field with the Home Address field in the routing header,
   decrements segments left by one from the value it had on the wire,
   and resubmits the packet to IP for processing the next header.
   Conceptually, this follows the same model as in <a href="./rfc2460">RFC 2460</a>.  However,
   in the case of the type 2 routing header, this can be simplified
   since it is known that the packet will not be forwarded to a
   different node.

   The definition of AH requires the sender to calculate the AH
   integrity check value of a routing header in the same way it appears
   in the receiver after it has processed the header.  Since IPsec
   headers follow the routing header, any IPsec processing will operate
   on the packet with the home address in the IP destination field and
   segments left being zero.  Thus, the AH calculations at the sender
   and receiver will have an identical view of the packet.







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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3.4" href="#section-11.3.4">11.3.4</a>.  Routing Multicast Packets</span>

   A mobile node that is connected to its home link functions in the
   same way as any other (stationary) node.  Thus, when it is at home, a
   mobile node functions identically to other multicast senders and
   receivers.  Therefore, this section describes the behavior of a
   mobile node that is not on its home link.

   In order to receive packets sent to some multicast group, a mobile
   node must join that multicast group.  One method, in which a mobile
   node MAY join the group, is via a (local) multicast router on the
   foreign link being visited.  In this case, the mobile node MUST use
   its care-of address and MUST NOT use the Home Address destination
   option when sending MLD packets [<a href="#ref-9" title="&quot;Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6&quot;">9</a>].

   Alternatively, a mobile node MAY join multicast groups via a
   bidirectional tunnel to its home agent.  The mobile node tunnels its
   multicast group membership control packets (such as those defined in
   [<a href="#ref-9" title="&quot;Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6&quot;">9</a>] or in [<a href="#ref-41" title="&quot;Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 (MLDv2) for IPv6&quot;">41</a>]) to its home agent, and the home agent forwards
   multicast packets down the tunnel to the mobile node.  A mobile node
   MUST NOT tunnel multicast group membership control packets until (1)
   the mobile node has a binding in place at the home agent, and (2) the
   latter sends at least one multicast group membership control packet
   via the tunnel.  Once this condition is true, the mobile node SHOULD
   assume it does not change as long as the binding does not expire.

   A mobile node that wishes to send packets to a multicast group also
   has two options:

   1.  Send directly on the foreign link being visited.

       To do this, the application uses the care-of address as a source
       address for multicast traffic, just as it would use a stationary
       address.  This requires that the application either knows the
       care-of address, or uses an API such as the IPv6 Socket API for
       Source Address Selection specification [<a href="#ref-44" title="&quot;IPv6 Socket API for Source Address Selection&quot;">44</a>] to request that the
       care-of address be used as the source address in transmitted
       packets.  The mobile node MUST NOT use the Home Address
       destination option in such traffic.












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   2.  Send via a tunnel to its home agent.

       Because multicast routing in general depends upon the Source
       Address used in the IPv6 header of the multicast packet, a mobile
       node that tunnels a multicast packet to its home agent MUST use
       its home address as the IPv6 Source Address of the inner
       multicast packet.

   Note that direct sending from the foreign link is only applicable
   while the mobile node is at that foreign link.  This is because the
   associated multicast tree is specific to that source location and any
   change of location and source address will invalidate the source-
   specific tree or branch and the application context of the other
   multicast group members.

   This specification does not provide mechanisms to enable such local
   multicast session to survive hand-off and to seamlessly continue from
   a new care-of address on each new foreign link.  Any such mechanism,
   developed as an extension to this specification, needs to take into
   account the impact of fast moving mobile nodes on the Internet
   multicast routing protocols and their ability to maintain the
   integrity of source specific multicast trees and branches.

   While the use of bidirectional tunneling can ensure that multicast
   trees are independent of the mobile nodes movement, in some case such
   tunneling can have adverse effects.  The latency of specific types of
   multicast applications (such as multicast-based discovery protocols)
   will be affected when the round-trip time between the foreign subnet
   and the home agent is significant compared to that of the topology to
   be discovered.  In addition, the delivery tree from the home agent in
   such circumstances relies on unicast encapsulation from the agent to
   the mobile node.  Therefore, bandwidth usage is inefficient compared
   to the native multicast forwarding in the foreign multicast system.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3.5" href="#section-11.3.5">11.3.5</a>.  Receiving ICMP Error Messages</span>

   Any node that does not recognize the Mobility header will return an
   ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 1, message to the sender of the packet.
   If the mobile node receives such an ICMP error message in response to
   a return routability procedure or Binding Update, it SHOULD record in
   its Binding Update List that future Binding Updates SHOULD NOT be
   sent to this destination.  Such Binding Update List entries SHOULD be
   removed after a period of time in order to allow for retrying route
   optimization.

   New Binding Update List entries MUST NOT be created as a result of
   receiving ICMP error messages.




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   Correspondent nodes that have participated in the return routability
   procedure MUST implement the ability to correctly process received
   packets containing a Home Address destination option.  Therefore,
   correctly implemented correspondent nodes should always be able to
   recognize Home Address options.  If a mobile node receives an ICMP
   Parameter Problem, Code 2, message from some node indicating that it
   does not support the Home Address option, the mobile node SHOULD log
   the error and then discard the ICMP message.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.3.6" href="#section-11.3.6">11.3.6</a>.  Receiving Binding Error Messages</span>

   When a mobile node receives a packet containing a Binding Error
   message, it should first check if the mobile node has a Binding
   Update List entry for the source of the Binding Error message.  If
   the mobile node does not have such an entry, it MUST ignore the
   message.  This is necessary to prevent a waste of resources, e.g., on
   return routability procedure due to spoofed Binding Error messages.

   Otherwise, if the message Status field was 1 (unknown binding for
   Home Address destination option), the mobile node should perform one
   of the following three actions:

   o  If the Binding Error Message was sent by the home agent, the
      mobile node SHOULD send a Binding Update to the home agent
      according to <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>.

   o  If the mobile node has recent upper-layer progress information,
      which indicates that communications with the correspondent node
      are progressing, it MAY ignore the message.  This can be done in
      order to limit the damage that spoofed Binding Error messages can
      cause to ongoing communications.

   o  If the mobile node has no upper-layer progress information, it
      MUST remove the entry and route further communications through the
      home agent.  It MAY also optionally start a return routability
      procedure (see <a href="#section-5.2">Section 5.2</a>).

   If the message Status field was 2 (unrecognized MH Type value), the
   mobile node should perform one of the following two actions:

   o  If the mobile node is not expecting an acknowledgement or response
      from the correspondent node, the mobile node SHOULD ignore this
      message.

   o  Otherwise, the mobile node SHOULD cease the use of any extensions
      to this specification.  If no extensions had been used, the mobile
      node should cease the attempt to use route optimization.




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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.4" href="#section-11.4">11.4</a>.  Home Agent and Prefix Management</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.4.1" href="#section-11.4.1">11.4.1</a>.  Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery</span>

   Sometimes when the mobile node needs to send a Binding Update to its
   home agent to register its new primary care-of address, as described
   in <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>, the mobile node may not know the address of any
   router on its home link that can serve as a home agent for it.  For
   example, some nodes on its home link may have been reconfigured while
   the mobile node has been away from home, such that the router that
   was operating as the mobile node's home agent has been replaced by a
   different router serving this role.

   In this case, the mobile node MAY attempt to discover the address of
   a suitable home agent on its home link.  To do so, the mobile node
   sends an ICMP Home Agent Address Discovery Request message to the
   Mobile IPv6 Home-Agents anycast address [<a href="#ref-8" title="&quot;Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses&quot;">8</a>] for its home subnet
   prefix.  As described in <a href="#section-10.5">Section 10.5</a>, the home agent on its home
   link that receives this Request message will return an ICMP Home
   Agent Address Discovery Reply message.  This message gives the
   addresses for the home agents operating on the home link.

   The mobile node, upon receiving this Home Agent Address Discovery
   Reply message, MAY then send its home registration Binding Update to
   any of the unicast IP addresses listed in the Home Agent Addresses
   field in the Reply.  For example, the mobile node MAY attempt its
   home registration to each of these addresses, in turn, until its
   registration is accepted.  The mobile node sends a Binding Update to
   an address and waits for the matching Binding Acknowledgement, moving
   on to the next address if there is no response.  The mobile node
   MUST, however, wait at least InitialBindackTimeoutFirstReg seconds
   (see <a href="#section-13">Section 13</a>) before sending a Binding Update to the next home
   agent.  In trying each of the returned home agent addresses, the
   mobile node SHOULD try each of them in the order they appear in the
   Home Agent Addresses field in the received Home Agent Address
   Discovery Reply message.  In order to do this, the mobile node SHOULD
   store the list of home agents for later use in case the home agent
   currently managing the mobile node's care-of address forwarding
   should become unavailable.  The list MAY be stored, along with any
   available lifetime information for the home agent addresses, in
   nonvolatile memory to survive reboots by the mobile node.

   If the mobile node has a current registration with some home agent
   (the Lifetime for that registration has not yet expired), then the
   mobile node MUST attempt any new registration first with that home
   agent.  If that registration attempt fails (e.g., timed out or
   rejected), the mobile node SHOULD then reattempt this registration




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   with another home agent.  If the mobile node knows of no other
   suitable home agent, then it MAY attempt the dynamic home agent
   address discovery mechanism described above.

   If, after a mobile node transmits a Home Agent Address Discovery
   Request message to the Home Agents Anycast address, it does not
   receive a corresponding Home Agent Address Discovery Reply message
   within INITIAL_DHAAD_TIMEOUT (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>) seconds, the mobile
   node MAY retransmit the same Request message to the same anycast
   address.  This retransmission MAY be repeated up to a maximum of
   DHAAD_RETRIES (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>) attempts.  Each retransmission MUST be
   delayed by twice the time interval of the previous retransmission.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.4.2" href="#section-11.4.2">11.4.2</a>.  Sending Mobile Prefix Solicitations</span>

   When a mobile node has a home address that is about to become
   invalid, it SHOULD send a Mobile Prefix Solicitation to its home
   agent in an attempt to acquire fresh routing prefix information.  The
   new information also enables the mobile node to participate in
   renumbering operations affecting the home network, as described in
   <a href="#section-10.6">Section 10.6</a>.

   The mobile node MUST use the Home Address destination option to carry
   its home address.  The mobile node MUST support and SHOULD use IPsec
   to protect the solicitation.  The mobile node MUST set the Identifier
   field in the ICMP header to a random value.

   As described in <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a>, Binding Updates sent by the mobile
   node to other nodes MUST use a lifetime no greater than the remaining
   lifetime of its home registration of its primary care-of address.
   The mobile node SHOULD further limit the lifetimes that it sends on
   any Binding Updates to be within the remaining valid lifetime (see
   <a href="#section-10.6.2">Section 10.6.2</a>) for the prefix in its home address.

   When the lifetime for a changed prefix decreases, and the change
   would cause cached bindings at correspondent nodes in the Binding
   Update List to be stored past the newly shortened lifetime, the
   mobile node MUST issue a Binding Update to all such correspondent
   nodes.

   These limits on the binding lifetime serve to prohibit use of a
   mobile node's home address after it becomes invalid.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.4.3" href="#section-11.4.3">11.4.3</a>.  Receiving Mobile Prefix Advertisements</span>

   <a href="#section-10.6">Section 10.6</a> describes the operation of a home agent to support boot
   time configuration and renumbering a mobile node's home subnet while
   the mobile node is away from home.  The home agent sends Mobile



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   Prefix Advertisements to the mobile node while away from home, giving
   "important" Prefix Information options that describe changes in the
   prefixes in use on the mobile node's home link.

   The Mobile Prefix Solicitation is similar to the Router Solicitation
   used in Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>], except it is routed from the mobile
   node on the visited network to the home agent on the home network by
   usual unicast routing rules.

   When a mobile node receives a Mobile Prefix Advertisement, it MUST
   validate it according to the following test:

   o  The Source Address of the IP packet carrying the Mobile Prefix
      Advertisement is the same as the home agent address to which the
      mobile node last sent an accepted home registration Binding Update
      to register its primary care-of address.  Otherwise, if no such
      registrations have been made, it SHOULD be the mobile node's
      stored home agent address, if one exists.  Otherwise, if the
      mobile node has not yet discovered its home agent's address, it
      MUST NOT accept Mobile Prefix Advertisements.

   o  The packet MUST have a type 2 routing header and SHOULD be
      protected by an IPsec header as described in Sections <a href="#section-5.4">5.4</a> and <a href="#section-6.8">6.8</a>.

   o  If the ICMP Identifier value matches the ICMP Identifier value of
      the most recently sent Mobile Prefix Solicitation and no other
      advertisement has yet been received for this value, then the
      advertisement is considered to be solicited and will be processed
      further.

      Otherwise, the advertisement is unsolicited, and MUST be
      discarded.  In this case the mobile node SHOULD send a Mobile
      Prefix Solicitation.

   Any received Mobile Prefix Advertisement not meeting these tests MUST
   be silently discarded.

   For an accepted Mobile Prefix Advertisement, the mobile node MUST
   process Managed Address Configuration (M), Other Stateful
   Configuration (O), and the Prefix Information Options as if they
   arrived in a Router Advertisement [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] on the mobile node's home
   link.  (This specification does not, however, describe how to acquire
   home addresses through stateful protocols.)  Such processing may
   result in the mobile node configuring a new home address, although
   due to separation between preferred lifetime and valid lifetime, such
   changes should not affect most communications by the mobile node, in
   the same way as for nodes that are at home.




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   This specification assumes that any security associations and
   security policy entries that may be needed for new prefixes have been
   pre-configured in the mobile node.  Note that while dynamic key
   management avoids the need to configure new security associations, it
   is still necessary to add policy entries to protect the
   communications involving the home address(es).  Mechanisms for
   setting up these entries are outside the scope of this specification.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.5" href="#section-11.5">11.5</a>.  Movement</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.5.1" href="#section-11.5.1">11.5.1</a>.  Movement Detection</span>

   The primary goal of movement detection is to detect L3 handovers.
   This section does not attempt to specify a fast movement detection
   algorithm that will function optimally for all types of applications,
   link layers, and deployment scenarios; instead, it describes a
   generic method that uses the facilities of IPv6 Neighbor Discovery,
   including Router Discovery and Neighbor Unreachability Detection.  At
   the time of this writing, this method is considered well enough
   understood to recommend for standardization; however, it is expected
   that future versions of this specification or other specifications
   may contain updated versions of the movement detection algorithm that
   have better performance.

   Generic movement detection uses Neighbor Unreachability Detection to
   detect when the default router is no longer bidirectionally
   reachable, in which case the mobile node must discover a new default
   router (usually on a new link).  However, this detection only occurs
   when the mobile node has packets to send, and in the absence of
   frequent Router Advertisements or indications from the link-layer,
   the mobile node might become unaware of an L3 handover that occurred.
   Therefore, the mobile node should supplement this method with other
   information whenever it is available to the mobile node (e.g., from
   lower protocol layers).

   When the mobile node detects an L3 handover, it performs Duplicate
   Address Detection [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>] on its link-local address, selects a new
   default router as a consequence of Router Discovery, and then
   performs prefix discovery with that new router to form new care-of
   address(es) as described in <a href="#section-11.5.3">Section 11.5.3</a>.  It then registers its
   new primary care-of address with its home agent as described in
   <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>.  After updating its home registration, the mobile
   node then updates associated mobility bindings in correspondent nodes
   that it is performing route optimization with as specified in
   <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a>.






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   Due to the temporary packet flow disruption and signaling overhead
   involved in updating mobility bindings, the mobile node should avoid
   performing an L3 handover until it is strictly necessary.

   Specifically, when the mobile node receives a Router Advertisement
   from a new router that contains a different set of on-link prefixes,
   if the mobile node detects that the currently selected default router
   on the old link is still bidirectionally reachable, it should
   generally continue to use the old router on the old link rather than
   switch away from it to use a new default router.

   Mobile nodes can use the information in received Router
   Advertisements to detect L3 handovers.  In doing so the mobile node
   needs to consider the following issues:

   o  There might be multiple routers on the same link.  Thus, hearing a
      new router does not necessarily constitute an L3 handover.

   o  When there are multiple routers on the same link they might
      advertise different prefixes.  Thus, even hearing a new router
      with a new prefix might not be a reliable indication of an L3
      handover.

   o  The link-local addresses of routers are not globally unique, hence
      after completing an L3 handover the mobile node might continue to
      receive Router Advertisements with the same link-local source
      address.  This might be common if routers use the same link-local
      address on multiple interfaces.  This issue can be avoided when
      routers use the Router Address (R) bit, since that provides a
      global address of the router.

   In addition, the mobile node should consider the following events as
   indications that an L3 handover may have occurred.  Upon receiving
   such indications, the mobile node needs to perform Router Discovery
   to discover routers and prefixes on the new link, as described in
   <a href="#section-6.3.7">Section 6.3.7</a> of Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]).

   o  If Router Advertisements that the mobile node receives include an
      Advertisement Interval option, the mobile node may use its
      Advertisement Interval field as an indication of the frequency
      with which it should expect to continue to receive future
      Advertisements from that router.  This field specifies the minimum
      rate (the maximum amount of time between successive
      Advertisements) that the mobile node should expect.  If this
      amount of time elapses without the mobile node receiving any
      Advertisement from this router, the mobile node can be sure that
      at least one Advertisement sent by the router has been lost.  The




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      mobile node can then implement its own policy to determine how
      many lost Advertisements from its current default router
      constitute an L3 handover indication.

   o  Neighbor Unreachability Detection determines that the default
      router is no longer reachable.

   o  With some types of networks, notification that an L2 handover has
      occurred might be obtained from lower-layer protocols or device
      driver software within the mobile node.  While further details
      around handling L2 indications as movement hints is an item for
      further study, at the time of writing this specification the
      following is considered reasonable:

      An L2 handover indication may or may not imply L2 movement and L2
      movement may or may not imply L3 movement; the correlations might
      be a function of the type of L2 but might also be a function of
      actual deployment of the wireless topology.

      Unless it is well-known that an L2 handover indication is likely
      to imply L3 movement, instead of immediately multicasting a router
      solicitation it may be better to attempt to verify whether the
      default router is still bidirectionally reachable.  This can be
      accomplished by sending a unicast Neighbor Solicitation and
      waiting for a Neighbor Advertisement with the Solicited flag set.
      Note that this is similar to Neighbor Unreachability detection,
      but it does not have the same state machine, such as the STALE
      state.

      If the default router does not respond to the Neighbor
      Solicitation it makes sense to proceed to multicasting a Router
      Solicitation.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.5.2" href="#section-11.5.2">11.5.2</a>.  Home Link Detection</span>

   When an MN detects that it has arrived on a new link using the
   movement detection algorithm in use (<a href="#section-11.5.1">Section 11.5.1</a>) or on
   bootstrapping, it performs the following steps to determine if it is
   on the home link.

   o  The MN performs the procedure described in <a href="#section-11.5.3">Section 11.5.3</a> and
      configures an address.  It also keeps track of all the on-link
      prefix(es) received in the RA along with their prefix lengths.

   o  If the home prefix has not been statically configured the MN uses
      some form of bootstrapping procedure (e.g., <a href="./rfc5026">RFC 5026</a> [<a href="#ref-22" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario&quot;">22</a>]) to
      determine the home prefix.




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   o  Given the availability of the home prefix, the MN checks whether
      or not the home prefix matches one of the prefixes received in the
      RA.  If it does, the MN concludes that it is connected to the home
      link.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.5.3" href="#section-11.5.3">11.5.3</a>.  Forming New Care-of Addresses</span>

   After detecting that it has moved a mobile node SHOULD generate a new
   primary care-of address using normal IPv6 mechanisms.  This SHOULD
   also be done when the current primary care-of address becomes
   deprecated.  A mobile node MAY form a new primary care-of address at
   any time, but a mobile node MUST NOT send a Binding Update about a
   new care-of address to its home agent more than MAX_UPDATE_RATE times
   within a second.

   In addition, a mobile node MAY form new non-primary care-of addresses
   even when it has not switched to a new default router.  A mobile node
   can have only one primary care-of address at a time (which is
   registered with its home agent), but it MAY have an additional
   care-of address for any or all of the prefixes on its current link.
   Furthermore, since a wireless network interface may actually allow a
   mobile node to be reachable on more than one link at a time (i.e.,
   within wireless transmitter range of routers on more than one
   separate link), a mobile node MAY have care-of addresses on more than
   one link at a time.  The use of more than one care-of address at a
   time is described in <a href="#section-11.5.4">Section 11.5.4</a>.

   As described in <a href="#section-4">Section 4</a>, in order to form a new care-of address, a
   mobile node MAY use either stateless [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>] or stateful (e.g., DHCPv6
   [<a href="#ref-31" title="&quot;Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)&quot;">31</a>]) Address Autoconfiguration.  If a mobile node needs to use a
   source address (other than the unspecified address) in packets sent
   as a part of address autoconfiguration, it MUST use an IPv6 link-
   local address rather than its own IPv6 home address.

   <a href="./rfc4862">RFC 4862</a> [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>] specifies that in normal processing for Duplicate
   Address Detection, the node SHOULD delay sending the initial Neighbor
   Solicitation message by a random delay between 0 and
   MAX_RTR_SOLICITATION_DELAY.  Since delaying Duplicate Address
   Detection (DAD) can result in significant delays in configuring a new
   care-of address when the mobile node moves to a new link, the mobile
   node preferably SHOULD NOT delay DAD when configuring a new care-of
   address.  The mobile node SHOULD delay according to the mechanisms
   specified in <a href="./rfc4862">RFC 4862</a> unless the implementation has a behavior that
   desynchronizes the steps that happen before the DAD in the case that
   multiple nodes experience handover at the same time.  Such
   desynchronizing behaviors might be due to random delays in the L2
   protocols or device drivers, or due to the movement detection
   mechanism that is used.



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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.5.4" href="#section-11.5.4">11.5.4</a>.  Using Multiple Care-of Addresses</span>

   As described in <a href="#section-11.5.3">Section 11.5.3</a>, a mobile node MAY use more than one
   care-of address at a time.  Particularly in the case of many wireless
   networks, a mobile node effectively might be reachable through
   multiple links at the same time (e.g., with overlapping wireless
   cells), on which different on-link subnet prefixes may exist.  The
   mobile node MUST ensure that its primary care-of address always has a
   prefix that is advertised by its current default router.  After
   selecting a new primary care-of address, the mobile node MUST send a
   Binding Update containing that care-of address to its home agent.
   The Binding Update MUST have the Home Registration (H) and
   Acknowledge (A) bits set its home agent, as described on
   <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>.

   To assist with smooth handovers, a mobile node SHOULD retain its
   previous primary care-of address as a (non-primary) care-of address,
   and SHOULD still accept packets at this address, even after
   registering its new primary care-of address with its home agent.
   This is reasonable, since the mobile node could only receive packets
   at its previous primary care-of address if it were indeed still
   connected to that link.  If the previous primary care-of address was
   allocated using stateful Address Autoconfiguration [<a href="#ref-31" title="&quot;Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)&quot;">31</a>], the mobile
   node may not wish to release the address immediately upon switching
   to a new primary care-of address.

   Whenever a mobile node determines that it is no longer reachable
   through a given link, it SHOULD invalidate all care-of addresses
   associated with address prefixes that it discovered from routers on
   the unreachable link that are not in the current set of address
   prefixes advertised by the (possibly new) current default router.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.5.5" href="#section-11.5.5">11.5.5</a>.  Returning Home</span>

   A mobile node detects that it has returned to its home link through
   the movement detection algorithm in use (<a href="#section-11.5.2">Section 11.5.2</a>), when the
   mobile node detects that its home subnet prefix is again on-link.  To
   be able to send and receive packets using its home address from the
   home link, the mobile node MUST send a Binding Update to its home
   agent to instruct its home agent to no longer intercept or tunnel
   packets for it.  Until the mobile node sends such a de-registration
   Binding Update, it MUST NOT attempt to send and receive packets using
   its home address from the home link.  The home agent will continue to
   intercept all packets sent to the mobile's home address and tunnel
   them to the previously registered care-of address.






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   In this home registration, the mobile node MUST set the Acknowledge
   (A) and Home Registration (H) bits, set the Lifetime field to zero,
   and set the care-of address for the binding to the mobile node's own
   home address.  The mobile node MUST use its home address as the
   source address in the Binding Update.

   When sending this Binding Update to its home agent, the mobile node
   must be careful in how it uses Neighbor Solicitation [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] (if needed)
   to learn the home agent's link-layer address, since the home agent
   will be currently configured to intercept packets to the mobile
   node's home address using Proxy Neighbor Discovery (Proxy ND).  In
   particular, the mobile node is unable to use its home address as the
   Source Address in the Neighbor Solicitation until the home agent
   stops defending the home address.

   Neighbor Solicitation by the mobile node for the home agent's address
   will normally not be necessary, since the mobile node has already
   learned the home agent's link-layer address from a Source Link-Layer
   Address option in a Router Advertisement.  However, if there are
   multiple home agents it may still be necessary to send a
   solicitation.  In this special case of the mobile node returning
   home, the mobile node MUST multicast the packet, and in addition set
   the Source Address of this Neighbor Solicitation to the unspecified
   address (0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0).  The target of the Neighbor Solicitation
   MUST be set to the mobile node's home address.  The destination IP
   address MUST be set to the Solicited-Node multicast address [<a href="#ref-16" title="&quot;IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture&quot;">16</a>].
   The home agent will send a multicast Neighbor Advertisement back to
   the mobile node with the Solicited (S) flag set to zero.  In any
   case, the mobile node SHOULD record the information from the Source
   Link-Layer Address option or from the advertisement, and set the
   state of the Neighbor Cache entry for the home agent to REACHABLE.

   The mobile node then sends its Binding Update to the home agent's
   link-layer address, instructing its home agent to no longer serve as
   a home agent for it.  By processing this Binding Update, the home
   agent will cease defending the mobile node's home address for
   Duplicate Address Detection and will no longer respond to Neighbor
   Solicitations for the mobile node's home address.  The mobile node is
   then the only node on the link receiving packets at the mobile node's
   home address.  In addition, when returning home prior to the
   expiration of a current binding for its home address, and configuring
   its home address on its network interface on its home link, the
   mobile node MUST NOT perform Duplicate Address Detection on its own
   home address, in order to avoid confusion or conflict with its home
   agent's use of the same address.  This rule also applies to the
   derived link-local address of the mobile node, if the Link Local





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   Address Compatibility (L) bit was set when the binding was created.
   If the mobile node returns home after the bindings for all of its
   care-of addresses have expired, then it SHOULD perform DAD.

   After the mobile node sends the Binding Update, it MUST be prepared
   to reply to Neighbor Solicitations for its home address.  Such
   replies MUST be sent using a unicast Neighbor Advertisement to the
   sender's link-layer address.  It is necessary to reply, since sending
   the Binding Acknowledgement from the home agent may require
   performing Neighbor Discovery, and the mobile node may not be able to
   distinguish Neighbor Solicitations coming from the home agent from
   other Neighbor Solicitations.  Note that a race condition exists
   where both the mobile node and the home agent respond to the same
   solicitations sent by other nodes; this will be only temporary,
   however, until the Binding Update is accepted.

   After receiving the Binding Acknowledgement for its Binding Update to
   its home agent, the mobile node MUST multicast onto the home link (to
   the all-nodes multicast address) a Neighbor Advertisement [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>], to
   advertise the mobile node's own link-layer address for its own home
   address.  The Target Address in this Neighbor Advertisement MUST be
   set to the mobile node's home address, and the Advertisement MUST
   include a Target Link-layer Address option specifying the mobile
   node's link-layer address.  The mobile node MUST multicast such a
   Neighbor Advertisement for each of its home addresses, as defined by
   the current on-link prefixes, including its link-local address.  The
   Solicited (S) flag in these Advertisements MUST NOT be set, since
   they were not solicited by any Neighbor Solicitation.  The Override
   (O) flag in these Advertisements MUST be set, indicating that the
   Advertisements SHOULD override any existing Neighbor Cache entries at
   any node receiving them.

   Since multicasting on the local link (such as Ethernet) is typically
   not guaranteed to be reliable, the mobile node MAY retransmit these
   Neighbor Advertisements [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] up to MAX_NEIGHBOR_ADVERTISEMENT times
   to increase their reliability.  It is still possible that some nodes
   on the home link will not receive any of these Neighbor
   Advertisements, but these nodes will eventually be able to recover
   through use of Neighbor Unreachability Detection [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>].

   Note that the tunnel via the home agent typically stops operating at
   the same time that the home registration is deleted.









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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.6" href="#section-11.6">11.6</a>.  Return Routability Procedure</span>

   This section defines the rules that the mobile node must follow when
   performing the return routability procedure.  <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a>
   describes the rules when the return routability procedure needs to be
   initiated.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.6.1" href="#section-11.6.1">11.6.1</a>.  Sending Test Init Messages</span>

   A mobile node that initiates a return routability procedure MUST send
   (in parallel) a Home Test Init message and a Care-of Test Init
   message.  However, if the mobile node has recently received (see
   <a href="#section-5.2.7">Section 5.2.7</a>) one or both home or care-of keygen tokens, and
   associated nonce indices for the desired addresses, it MAY reuse
   them.  Therefore, the return routability procedure may in some cases
   be completed with only one message pair.  It may even be completed
   without any messages at all, if the mobile node has a recent home
   keygen token and has previously visited the same care-of address so
   that it also has a recent care-of keygen token.  If the mobile node
   intends to send a Binding Update with the Lifetime set to zero and
   the care-of address equal to its home address -- such as when
   returning home -- sending a Home Test Init message is sufficient.  In
   this case, generation of the binding management key depends
   exclusively on the home keygen token (<a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>).

   A Home Test Init message MUST be created as described in
   <a href="#section-6.1.3">Section 6.1.3</a>.

   A Care-of Test Init message MUST be created as described in
   <a href="#section-6.1.4">Section 6.1.4</a>.  When sending a Home Test Init or Care-of Test Init
   message, the mobile node MUST record in its Binding Update List the
   following fields from the messages:

   o  The IP address of the node to which the message was sent.

   o  The home address of the mobile node.  This value will appear in
      the Source Address field of the Home Test Init message.  When
      sending the Care-of Test Init message, this address does not
      appear in the message, but represents the home address for which
      the binding is desired.

   o  The time at which each of these messages was sent.

   o  The cookies used in the messages.







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   Note that a single Care-of Test Init message may be sufficient even
   when there are multiple home addresses.  In this case the mobile node
   MAY record the same information in multiple Binding Update List
   entries.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.6.2" href="#section-11.6.2">11.6.2</a>.  Receiving Test Messages</span>

   Upon receiving a packet carrying a Home Test message, a mobile node
   MUST validate the packet according to the following tests:

   o  The Source Address of the packet belongs to a correspondent node
      for which the mobile node has a Binding Update List entry with a
      state indicating that return routability procedure is in progress.
      Note that there may be multiple such entries.

   o  The Binding Update List indicates that no home keygen token has
      been received yet.

   o  The Destination Address of the packet has the home address of the
      mobile node, and the packet has been received in a tunnel from the
      home agent.

   o  The Home Init Cookie field in the message matches the value stored
      in the Binding Update List.

   Any Home Test message not satisfying all of these tests MUST be
   silently ignored.  Otherwise, the mobile node MUST record the Home
   Nonce Index and home keygen token in the Binding Update List.  If the
   Binding Update List entry does not have a care-of keygen token, the
   mobile node SHOULD continue waiting for the Care-of Test message.

   Upon receiving a packet carrying a Care-of Test message, a mobile
   node MUST validate the packet according to the following tests:

   o  The Source Address of the packet belongs to a correspondent node
      for which the mobile node has a Binding Update List entry with a
      state indicating that return routability procedure is in progress.
      Note that there may be multiple such entries.

   o  The Binding Update List indicates that no care-of keygen token has
      been received yet.

   o  The Destination Address of the packet is the current care-of
      address of the mobile node.

   o  The Care-of Init Cookie field in the message matches the value
      stored in the Binding Update List.




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   Any Care-of Test message not satisfying all of these tests MUST be
   silently ignored.  Otherwise, the mobile node MUST record the Care-of
   Nonce Index and care-of keygen token in the Binding Update List.  If
   the Binding Update List entry does not have a home keygen token, the
   mobile node SHOULD continue waiting for the Home Test message.

   If after receiving either the Home Test or the Care-of Test message
   and performing the above actions, the Binding Update List entry has
   both the home and the care-of keygen tokens, the return routability
   procedure is complete.  The mobile node SHOULD then proceed with
   sending a Binding Update as described in <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a>.

   Correspondent nodes from the time before this specification was
   published may not support the Mobility Header protocol.  These nodes
   will respond to Home Test Init and Care-of Test Init messages with an
   ICMP Parameter Problem code 1.  The mobile node SHOULD take such
   messages as an indication that the correspondent node cannot provide
   route optimization, and revert back to the use of bidirectional
   tunneling.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.6.3" href="#section-11.6.3">11.6.3</a>.  Protecting Return Routability Packets</span>

   The mobile node MUST support the protection of Home Test and Home
   Test Init messages as described in <a href="#section-10.4.6">Section 10.4.6</a>.

   When IPsec is used to protect return routability signaling or payload
   packets, the mobile node MUST set the source address it uses for the
   outgoing tunnel packets to the current primary care-of address.  The
   mobile node starts to use a new primary care-of address immediately
   after sending a Binding Update to the home agent to register this new
   address.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.7" href="#section-11.7">11.7</a>.  Processing Bindings</span>

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.7.1" href="#section-11.7.1">11.7.1</a>.  Sending Binding Updates to the Home Agent</span>

   In order to change its primary care-of address as described in
   Sections <a href="#section-11.5.1">11.5.1</a> and <a href="#section-11.5.3">11.5.3</a>, a mobile node MUST register this care-of
   address with its home agent in order to make this its primary care-of
   address.

   Also, if the mobile node wants the services of the home agent beyond
   the current registration period, the mobile node should send a new
   Binding Update to it well before the expiration of this period, even
   if it is not changing its primary care-of address.  However, if the
   home agent returned a Binding Acknowledgement for the current
   registration with the Status field set to 1 (accepted but prefix
   discovery necessary), the mobile node should not try to register



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   again before it has learned the validity of its home prefixes through
   mobile prefix discovery.  This is typically necessary every time this
   Status value is received, because information learned earlier may
   have changed.

   To register a care-of address or to extend the lifetime of an
   existing registration, the mobile node sends a packet to its home
   agent containing a Binding Update, with the packet constructed as
   follows:

   o  The Home Registration (H) bit MUST be set in the Binding Update.

   o  The Acknowledge (A) bit MUST be set in the Binding Update.

   o  The packet MUST contain a Home Address destination option, giving
      the mobile node's home address for the binding.

   o  The care-of address for the binding MUST be used as the Source
      Address in the packet's IPv6 header, unless an Alternate Care-of
      Address mobility option is included in the Binding Update.  This
      option MUST be included in all home registrations, as the ESP
      protocol will not be able to protect care-of addresses in the IPv6
      header.  (Mobile IPv6 implementations that know they are using
      IPsec AH to protect a particular message might avoid this option.
      For brevity the usage of AH is not discussed in this document.)

   o  If the mobile node's link-local address has the same interface
      identifier as the home address for which it is supplying a new
      care-of address, then the mobile node SHOULD set the Link-Local
      Address Compatibility (L) bit.

   o  If the home address was generated using <a href="./rfc4941">RFC 4941</a> [<a href="#ref-21" title="&quot;Privacy Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6&quot;">21</a>], then the
      link local address is unlikely to have a compatible interface
      identifier.  In this case, the mobile node MUST clear the Link-
      Local Address Compatibility (L) bit.

   o  If the IPsec security associations between the mobile node and the
      home agent have been established dynamically, and the mobile node
      has the capability to update its endpoint in the used key
      management protocol to the new care-of address every time it
      moves, the mobile node SHOULD set the Key Management Mobility
      Capability (K) bit in the Binding Update.  Otherwise, the mobile
      node MUST clear the bit.

   o  The value specified in the Lifetime field MUST be non-zero and
      SHOULD be less than or equal to the remaining valid lifetime of
      the home address and the care-of address specified for the
      binding.



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      Mobile nodes that use dynamic home agent address discovery should
      be careful with long lifetimes.  If the mobile node loses the
      knowledge of its binding with a specific home agent, registering a
      new binding with another home agent may be impossible as the
      previous home agent is still defending the existing binding.
      Therefore, to ensure that mobile nodes using home agent address
      discovery do not lose information about their binding, they SHOULD
      de-register before losing this information, or use small
      lifetimes.

   The Acknowledge (A) bit in the Binding Update requests the home agent
   to return a Binding Acknowledgement in response to this Binding
   Update.  As described in <a href="#section-6.1.8">Section 6.1.8</a>, the mobile node SHOULD
   retransmit this Binding Update to its home agent until it receives a
   matching Binding Acknowledgement.  Once reaching a retransmission
   timeout period of MAX_BINDACK_TIMEOUT, the mobile node SHOULD restart
   the process of delivering the Binding Update, but trying instead the
   next home agent returned during dynamic home agent address discovery
   (see <a href="#section-11.4.1">Section 11.4.1</a>).  If there was only one home agent, the mobile
   node instead SHOULD continue to periodically retransmit the Binding
   Update at this rate until acknowledged (or until it begins attempting
   to register a different primary care-of address).  See <a href="#section-11.8">Section 11.8</a>
   for information about retransmitting Binding Updates.

   With the Binding Update, the mobile node requests the home agent to
   serve as the home agent for the given home address.  Until the
   lifetime of this registration expires, the home agent considers
   itself the home agent for this home address.

   Each Binding Update MUST be authenticated as coming from the right
   mobile node, as defined in <a href="#section-5.1">Section 5.1</a>.  The mobile node MUST use its
   home address -- either in the Home Address destination option or in
   the Source Address field of the IPv6 header -- in Binding Updates
   sent to the home agent.  This is necessary in order to allow the
   IPsec policies to be matched with the correct home address.

   When sending a Binding Update to its home agent, the mobile node MUST
   also create or update the corresponding Binding Update List entry, as
   specified in <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a>.

   The last Sequence Number value sent to the home agent in a Binding
   Update is stored by the mobile node.  If the sending mobile node has
   no knowledge of the correct Sequence Number value, it may start at
   any value.  If the home agent rejects the value, it sends back a
   Binding Acknowledgement with a status code 135, and the last accepted
   sequence number in the Sequence Number field of the Binding
   Acknowledgement.  The mobile node MUST store this information and use
   the next Sequence Number value for the next Binding Update it sends.



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   If the mobile node has additional home addresses, then the mobile
   node SHOULD send an additional packet containing a Binding Update to
   its home agent to register the care-of address for each such other
   home address.

   The home agent will only perform DAD for the mobile node's home
   address when the mobile node has supplied a valid binding between its
   home address and a care-of address.  If some time elapses during
   which the mobile node has no binding at the home agent, it might be
   possible for another node to autoconfigure the mobile node's home
   address.  Therefore, the mobile node MUST treat the creation of a new
   binding with the home agent using an existing home address, the same
   as creation of a new home address.  In the unlikely event that the
   mobile node's home address is autoconfigured as the IPv6 address of
   another network node on the home network, the home agent will reply
   to the mobile node's subsequent Binding Update with a Binding
   Acknowledgement containing a Status of 134 (Duplicate Address
   Detection failed).  In this case, the mobile node MUST NOT attempt to
   re-use the same home address.  It SHOULD continue to register the
   care-of addresses for its other home addresses, if any.  Mechanisms
   outlined in "Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario" [<a href="#ref-22" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario&quot;">22</a>] allow
   mobile nodes to acquire new home addresses to replace the one for
   which Status 134 was received.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.7.2" href="#section-11.7.2">11.7.2</a>.  Correspondent Registration</span>

   When the mobile node is assured that its home address is valid, it
   can initiate a correspondent registration with the purpose of
   allowing the correspondent node to cache the mobile node's current
   care-of address.  This procedure consists of the return routability
   procedure followed by a registration.

   This section defines when the correspondent registration is to be
   initiated and the rules to follow while it is being performed.

   After the mobile node has sent a Binding Update to its home agent,
   registering a new primary care-of address (as described in
   <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>), the mobile node SHOULD initiate a correspondent
   registration for each node that already appears in the mobile node's
   Binding Update List.  The initiated procedures can be used to either
   update or delete binding information in the correspondent node.

   For nodes that do not appear in the mobile node's Binding Update
   List, the mobile node MAY initiate a correspondent registration at
   any time after sending the Binding Update to its home agent.
   Considerations regarding when (and if) to initiate the procedure
   depend on the specific movement and traffic patterns of the mobile
   node and are outside the scope of this document.



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   In addition, the mobile node MAY initiate the correspondent
   registration in response to receiving a packet that meets all of the
   following tests:

   o  The packet was tunneled using IPv6 encapsulation.

   o  The Destination Address in the tunnel (outer) IPv6 header is equal
      to any of the mobile node's care-of addresses.

   o  The Destination Address in the original (inner) IPv6 header is
      equal to one of the mobile node's home addresses.

   o  The Source Address in the tunnel (outer) IPv6 header differs from
      the Source Address in the original (inner) IPv6 header.

   o  The packet does not contain a Home Test, Home Test Init, Care-of
      Test, or Care-of Test Init message.

   If a mobile node has multiple home addresses, it becomes important to
   select the right home address to use in the correspondent
   registration.  The used home address MUST be the Destination Address
   of the original (inner) packet.

   The peer address used in the procedure MUST be determined as follows:

   o  If a Home Address destination option is present in the original
      (inner) packet, the address from this option is used.

   o  Otherwise, the Source Address in the original (inner) IPv6 header
      of the packet is used.

   Note that the validity of the original packet is checked before
   attempting to initiate a correspondent registration.  For instance,
   if a Home Address destination option appeared in the original packet,
   then rules in <a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a> are followed.

   A mobile node MAY also choose to keep its topological location
   private from certain correspondent nodes, and thus need not initiate
   the correspondent registration.

   Upon successfully completing the return routability procedure, and
   after receiving a successful Binding Acknowledgement from the home
   agent, a Binding Update MAY be sent to the correspondent node.

   In any Binding Update sent by a mobile node, the care-of address
   (either the Source Address in the packet's IPv6 header or the Care-of
   Address in the Alternate Care-of Address mobility option of the
   Binding Update) MUST be set to one of the care-of addresses currently



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   in use by the mobile node or to the mobile node's home address.  A
   mobile node MAY set the care-of address differently for sending
   Binding Updates to different correspondent nodes.

   A mobile node MAY also send a Binding Update to such a correspondent
   node, instructing it to delete any existing binding for the mobile
   node from its Binding Cache, as described in <a href="#section-6.1.7">Section 6.1.7</a>.  Even in
   this case a successful completion of the return routability procedure
   is required first.

   If the care-of address is not set to the mobile node's home address,
   the Binding Update requests that the correspondent node create or
   update an entry for the mobile node in the correspondent node's
   Binding Cache.  This is done in order to record a care-of address for
   use in sending future packets to the mobile node.  In this case, the
   value specified in the Lifetime field sent in the Binding Update
   SHOULD be less than or equal to the remaining lifetime of the home
   registration and the care-of address specified for the binding.  The
   care-of address given in the Binding Update MAY differ from the
   mobile node's primary care-of address.

   If the Binding Update is sent to the correspondent node, requesting
   the deletion of any existing Binding Cache entry it has for the
   mobile node, the care-of address is set to the mobile node's home
   address and the Lifetime field set to zero.  In this case, generation
   of the binding management key depends exclusively on the home keygen
   token (<a href="#section-5.2.5">Section 5.2.5</a>).  The care-of nonce index SHOULD be set to zero
   in this case.  In keeping with the Binding Update creation rules
   below, the care-of address MUST be set to the home address if the
   mobile node is at home, or to the current care-of address if it is
   away from home.

   If the mobile node wants to ensure that its new care-of address has
   been entered into a correspondent node's Binding Cache, the mobile
   node needs to request an acknowledgement by setting the Acknowledge
   (A) bit in the Binding Update.

   A Binding Update is created as follows:

   o  The current care-of address of the mobile node MUST be sent either
      in the Source Address of the IPv6 header or in the Alternate
      Care-of Address mobility option.

   o  The Destination Address of the IPv6 header MUST contain the
      address of the correspondent node.






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   o  The Mobility Header is constructed according to rules in Sections
      6.1.7 and 5.2.6, including the Binding Authorization Data
      (calculated as defined in <a href="#section-6.2.7">Section 6.2.7</a>) and possibly the Nonce
      Indices mobility options.

   o  The home address of the mobile node MUST be added to the packet in
      a Home Address destination option, unless the Source Address is
      the home address.

   Each Binding Update MUST have a Sequence Number greater than the
   Sequence Number value sent in the previous Binding Update to the same
   destination address (if any).  The sequence numbers are compared
   modulo 2**16, as described in <a href="#section-9.5.1">Section 9.5.1</a>.  There is no
   requirement, however, that the Sequence Number value strictly
   increase by 1 with each new Binding Update sent or received, as long
   as the value stays within the window.  The last Sequence Number value
   sent to a destination in a Binding Update is stored by the mobile
   node in its Binding Update List entry for that destination.  If the
   sending mobile node has no Binding Update List entry, the Sequence
   Number SHOULD start at a random value.  The mobile node MUST NOT use
   the same Sequence Number in two different Binding Updates to the same
   correspondent node, even if the Binding Updates provide different
   care-of addresses.

   The mobile node is responsible for the completion of the
   correspondent registration, as well as any retransmissions that may
   be needed (subject to the rate limitation defined in <a href="#section-11.8">Section 11.8</a>).

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.7.3" href="#section-11.7.3">11.7.3</a>.  Receiving Binding Acknowledgements</span>

   Upon receiving a packet carrying a Binding Acknowledgement, a mobile
   node MUST validate the packet according to the following tests:

   o  The packet meets the authentication requirements for Binding
      Acknowledgements defined in Sections <a href="#section-6.1.8">6.1.8</a> and <a href="#section-5">5</a>.  That is, if the
      Binding Update was sent to the home agent, the underlying IPsec
      protection is used.  If the Binding Update was sent to the
      correspondent node, the Binding Authorization Data mobility option
      MUST be present and have a valid value.

   o  The Binding Authorization Data mobility option, if present, MUST
      be the last option and MUST NOT have trailing padding.

   o  The Sequence Number field matches the Sequence Number sent by the
      mobile node to this destination address in an outstanding Binding
      Update, and the Status field is not 135.





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   Any Binding Acknowledgement not satisfying all of these tests MUST be
   silently ignored.

   When a mobile node receives a packet carrying a valid Binding
   Acknowledgement, the mobile node MUST examine the Status field as
   follows:

   o  If the Status field indicates that the Binding Update was accepted
      (the Status field is less than 128), then the mobile node MUST
      update the corresponding entry in its Binding Update List to
      indicate that the Binding Update has been acknowledged; the mobile
      node MUST then stop retransmitting the Binding Update.  In
      addition, if the value specified in the Lifetime field in the
      Binding Acknowledgement is less than the Lifetime value sent in
      the Binding Update being acknowledged, the mobile node MUST
      subtract the difference between these two Lifetime values from the
      remaining lifetime for the binding as maintained in the
      corresponding Binding Update List entry (with a minimum value for
      the Binding Update List entry lifetime of 0).  That is, if the
      Lifetime value sent in the Binding Update was L_update, the
      Lifetime value received in the Binding Acknowledgement was L_ack,
      and the current remaining lifetime of the Binding Update List
      entry is L_remain, then the new value for the remaining lifetime
      of the Binding Update List entry should be

         max((L_remain - (L_update - L_ack)), 0)

      where max(X, Y) is the maximum of X and Y.  The effect of this
      step is to correctly manage the mobile node's view of the
      binding's remaining lifetime (as maintained in the corresponding
      Binding Update List entry) so that it correctly counts down from
      the Lifetime value given in the Binding Acknowledgement, but with
      the timer countdown beginning at the time that the Binding Update
      was sent.

      Mobile nodes SHOULD send a new Binding Update well before the
      expiration of this period in order to extend the lifetime.  This
      helps to avoid disruptions in communications that might otherwise
      be caused by network delays or clock drift.

   o  If the Binding Acknowledgement correctly passes authentication and
      the Status field value is 135 (Sequence Number out of window),
      then the mobile node MUST update its binding sequence number
      appropriately to match the sequence number given in the Binding
      Acknowledgement.  Otherwise, if the Status field value is 135 but
      the Binding Acknowledgement does not pass authentication, the
      message MUST be silently ignored.




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   o  If the Status field value is 1 (accepted but prefix discovery
      necessary), the mobile node SHOULD send a Mobile Prefix
      Solicitation message to update its information about the available
      prefixes.

   o  If the Status field indicates that the Binding Update was rejected
      (the Status field is greater than or equal to 128), then the
      mobile node can take steps to correct the cause of the error and
      retransmit the Binding Update (with a new Sequence Number value),
      subject to the rate limiting restriction specified in
      <a href="#section-11.8">Section 11.8</a>.  If this is not done or it fails, then the mobile
      node SHOULD record in its Binding Update List that future Binding
      Updates SHOULD NOT be sent to this destination.

   The treatment of a Binding Refresh Advice mobility option within the
   Binding Acknowledgement depends on where the acknowledgement came
   from.  This option MUST be ignored if the acknowledgement came from a
   correspondent node.  If it came from the home agent, the mobile node
   uses the Refresh Interval field in the option as a suggestion that it
   SHOULD attempt to refresh its home registration at the indicated
   shorter interval.

   If the acknowledgement came from the home agent, the mobile node
   examines the value of the Key Management Mobility Capability (K) bit.
   If this bit is not set, the mobile node SHOULD discard key management
   protocol connections, if any, to the home agent.  The mobile node MAY
   also initiate a new key management connection.

   If this bit is set, the mobile node SHOULD move its own endpoint in
   the key management protocol connections to the home agent, if any.
   The mobile node's new endpoint should be the new care-of address.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.7.4" href="#section-11.7.4">11.7.4</a>.  Receiving Binding Refresh Requests</span>

   When a mobile node receives a packet containing a Binding Refresh
   Request message, if the mobile node has a Binding Update List entry
   for the source of the Binding Refresh Request, and the mobile node
   wants to retain its Binding Cache entry at the correspondent node,
   then the mobile node should start a return routability procedure.  If
   the mobile node wants to have its Binding Cache entry removed, it can
   either ignore the Binding Refresh Request and wait for the binding to
   time out, or at any time, it can delete its binding from a
   correspondent node with an explicit Binding Update with a zero
   lifetime and the care-of address set to the home address.  If the
   mobile node does not know if it needs the Binding Cache entry, it can
   make the decision in an implementation-dependent manner, such as
   based on available resources.




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   Note that the mobile node should be careful not to respond to Binding
   Refresh Requests for addresses not in the Binding Update List to
   avoid being subjected to a denial of service attack.

   If the return routability procedure completes successfully, a Binding
   Update message SHOULD be sent, as described in <a href="#section-11.7.2">Section 11.7.2</a>.  The
   Lifetime field in this Binding Update SHOULD be set to a new
   lifetime, extending any current lifetime remaining from a previous
   Binding Update sent to this node (as indicated in any existing
   Binding Update List entry for this node), and the lifetime SHOULD
   again be less than or equal to the remaining lifetime of the home
   registration and the care-of address specified for the binding.  When
   sending this Binding Update, the mobile node MUST update its Binding
   Update List in the same way as for any other Binding Update sent by
   the mobile node.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-11.8" href="#section-11.8">11.8</a>.  Retransmissions and Rate Limiting</span>

   The mobile node is responsible for retransmissions and rate limiting
   in the return routability procedure, in registrations, and in
   solicited prefix discovery.

   When the mobile node sends a Mobile Prefix Solicitation, Home Test
   Init, Care-of Test Init, or Binding Update for which it expects a
   response, the mobile node has to determine a value for the initial
   retransmission timer:

   o  If the mobile node is sending a Mobile Prefix Solicitation, it
      SHOULD use an initial retransmission interval of
      INITIAL_SOLICIT_TIMER (see <a href="#section-12">Section 12</a>).

   o  If the mobile node is sending a Binding Update and does not have
      an existing binding at the home agent, it SHOULD use
      InitialBindackTimeoutFirstReg (see <a href="#section-13">Section 13</a>) as a value for the
      initial retransmission timer.  This long retransmission interval
      will allow the home agent to complete the Duplicate Address
      Detection procedure mandated in this case, as detailed in
      <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>.

   o  Otherwise, the mobile node should use the specified value of
      INITIAL_BINDACK_TIMEOUT for the initial retransmission timer.

   If the mobile node fails to receive a valid matching response within
   the selected initial retransmission interval, the mobile node SHOULD
   retransmit the message until a response is received.






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   The retransmissions by the mobile node MUST use an exponential back-
   off process in which the timeout period is doubled upon each
   retransmission, until either the node receives a response or the
   timeout period reaches the value MAX_BINDACK_TIMEOUT.  The mobile
   node MAY continue to send these messages at this slower rate
   indefinitely.

   The mobile node SHOULD start a separate back-off process for
   different message types, different home addresses, and different
   care-of addresses.  However, in addition an overall rate limitation
   applies for messages sent to a particular correspondent node.  This
   ensures that the correspondent node has a sufficient amount of time
   to respond when bindings for multiple home addresses are registered,
   for instance.  The mobile node MUST NOT send Mobility Header messages
   of a particular type to a particular correspondent node more than
   MAX_UPDATE_RATE times within a second.

   Retransmitted Binding Updates MUST use a Sequence Number value
   greater than that used for the previous transmission of this Binding
   Update.  Retransmitted Home Test Init and Care-of Test Init messages
   MUST use new cookie values.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-12" href="#section-12">12</a>.  Protocol Constants</span>

           DHAAD_RETRIES                   4 retransmissions
           INITIAL_BINDACK_TIMEOUT         1 second
           INITIAL_DHAAD_TIMEOUT           3 seconds
           INITIAL_SOLICIT_TIMER           3 seconds
           MAX_BINDACK_TIMEOUT             32 seconds
           MAX_DELETE_BCE_TIMEOUT          10 seconds
           MAX_NONCE_LIFETIME              240 seconds
           MAX_TOKEN_LIFETIME              210 seconds
           MAX_RO_FAILURE                  3 retries
           MAX_RR_BINDING_LIFETIME         420 seconds
           MAX_UPDATE_RATE                 3 times
           PREFIX_ADV_RETRIES              3 retransmissions
           PREFIX_ADV_TIMEOUT              3 seconds

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-13" href="#section-13">13</a>.  Protocol Configuration Variables</span>

           MaxMobPfxAdvInterval            Default: 86,400 seconds
           MinDelayBetweenRAs              Default: 3 seconds,
                                           Min: 0.03 seconds
           MinMobPfxAdvInterval            Default: 600 seconds
           InitialBindackTimeoutFirstReg   Default: 1.5 seconds






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   Home agents MUST allow the first three variables to be configured by
   system management, and mobile nodes MUST allow the last variable to
   be configured by system management.

   The default value for InitialBindackTimeoutFirstReg has been
   calculated as 1.5 times the default value of RetransTimer, as
   specified in Neighbor Discovery (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]) times the default
   value of DupAddrDetectTransmits, as specified in Stateless Address
   Autoconfiguration (<a href="./rfc4862">RFC 4862</a> [<a href="#ref-19" title="&quot;IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration&quot;">19</a>]).

   The value MinDelayBetweenRAs overrides the value of the protocol
   constant MIN_DELAY_BETWEEN_RAS, as specified in Neighbor Discovery
   (<a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a> [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>]).  This variable SHOULD be set to MinRtrAdvInterval,
   if MinRtrAdvInterval is less than 3 seconds.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-14" href="#section-14">14</a>.  IANA Considerations</span>

   This document defines a new IPv6 protocol, the Mobility Header,
   described in <a href="#section-6.1">Section 6.1</a>.  This protocol has been assigned protocol
   number 135.

   This document also creates a new name space "Mobility Header Type",
   for the MH Type field in the Mobility Header.  The current message
   types are described starting from <a href="#section-6.1.2">Section 6.1.2</a>, and are the
   following:

      0  Binding Refresh Request

      1  Home Test Init

      2  Care-of Test Init

      3  Home Test

      4  Care-of Test

      5  Binding Update

      6  Binding Acknowledgement

      7  Binding Error

   Future values of the MH Type can be allocated using Standards Action
   or IESG Approval [<a href="#ref-23" title="">23</a>].







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   Furthermore, each mobility message may contain mobility options as
   described in <a href="#section-6.2">Section 6.2</a>.  This document defines a new name space
   "Mobility Option" to identify these options.  The current mobility
   options are defined starting from <a href="#section-6.2.2">Section 6.2.2</a> and are the
   following:

      0  Pad1

      1  PadN

      2  Binding Refresh Advice

      3  Alternate Care-of Address

      4  Nonce Indices

      5  Authorization Data

   Future values of the Option Type can be allocated using Standards
   Action or IESG Approval [<a href="#ref-23" title="">23</a>].

   Finally, this document creates a third new name space "Status Code"
   for the Status field in the Binding Acknowledgement message.  The
   current values are listed in <a href="#section-6.1.8">Section 6.1.8</a> and are the following:

   0  Binding Update accepted

   1  Accepted but prefix discovery necessary

   128  Reason unspecified

   129  Administratively prohibited

   130  Insufficient resources

   131  Home registration not supported

   132  Not home subnet

   133  Not home agent for this mobile node

   134  Duplicate Address Detection failed

   135  Sequence number out of window

   136  Expired home nonce index

   137  Expired care-of nonce index



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   138  Expired nonces

   139  Registration type change disallowed

   174  Invalid Care-of Address

   Future values of the Status field can be allocated using Standards
   Action or IESG Approval [<a href="#ref-23" title="">23</a>].

   All fields labeled "Reserved" are only to be assigned through
   Standards Action or IESG Approval.

   This document also defines a new IPv6 destination option, the Home
   Address option, described in <a href="#section-6.3">Section 6.3</a>.  This option has been
   assigned the Option Type value 0xC9.

   This document also defines a new IPv6 type 2 routing header,
   described in <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>.  The value 2 has been allocated by IANA.

   In addition, this document defines four ICMP message types, two used
   as part of the dynamic home agent address discovery mechanism, and
   two used in lieu of Router Solicitations and Advertisements when the
   mobile node is away from the home link.  These messages have been
   assigned ICMPv6 type numbers from the informational message range:

   o  The Home Agent Address Discovery Request message, described in
      <a href="#section-6.5">Section 6.5</a>;

   o  The Home Agent Address Discovery Reply message, described in
      <a href="#section-6.6">Section 6.6</a>;

   o  The Mobile Prefix Solicitation, described in <a href="#section-6.7">Section 6.7</a>; and

   o  The Mobile Prefix Advertisement, described in <a href="#section-6.8">Section 6.8</a>.

   This document also defines two new Neighbor Discovery [<a href="#ref-18" title="&quot;Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)&quot;">18</a>] options,
   which have been assigned Option Type values within the option
   numbering space for Neighbor Discovery messages:

   o  The Advertisement Interval option, described in <a href="#section-7.3">Section 7.3</a>; and

   o  The Home Agent Information option, described in <a href="#section-7.4">Section 7.4</a>.









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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-15" href="#section-15">15</a>.  Security Considerations</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.1" href="#section-15.1">15.1</a>.  Threats</span>

   Any mobility solution must protect itself against misuses of the
   mobility features and mechanisms.  In Mobile IPv6, most of the
   potential threats are concerned with false bindings, usually
   resulting in denial-of-service attacks.  Some of the threats also
   pose potential for man-in-the-middle, hijacking, confidentiality, and
   impersonation attacks.  The main threats this protocol protects
   against are the following:

   o  Threats involving Binding Updates sent to home agents and
      correspondent nodes.  For instance, an attacker might claim that a
      certain mobile node is currently at a different location than it
      really is.  If a home agent accepts such spoofed information sent
      to it, the mobile node might not get traffic destined to it.
      Similarly, a malicious (mobile) node might use the home address of
      a victim node in a forged Binding Update sent to a correspondent
      node.

      These pose threats against confidentiality, integrity, and
      availability.  That is, an attacker might learn the contents of
      packets destined to another node by redirecting the traffic to
      itself.  Furthermore, an attacker might use the redirected packets
      in an attempt to set itself as a man in the middle between a
      mobile and a correspondent node.  This would allow the attacker to
      impersonate the mobile node, leading to integrity and availability
      problems.

      A malicious (mobile) node might also send Binding Updates in which
      the care-of address is set to the address of a victim node.  If
      such Binding Updates were accepted, the malicious node could lure
      the correspondent node into sending potentially large amounts of
      data to the victim; the correspondent node's replies to messages
      sent by the malicious mobile node will be sent to the victim host
      or network.  This could be used to cause a distributed denial-of-
      service attack.  For example, the correspondent node might be a
      site that will send a high-bandwidth stream of video to anyone who
      asks for it.  Note that the use of flow-control protocols such as
      TCP does not necessarily defend against this type of attack,
      because the attacker can fake the acknowledgements.  Even keeping
      TCP initial sequence numbers secret does not help, because the
      attacker can receive the first few segments (including the ISN) at
      its own address, and only then redirect the stream to the victim's
      address.  These types of attacks may also be directed to networks
      instead of nodes.  Further variations of this threat are described
      elsewhere [<a href="#ref-28" title="&quot;MIPv6 BU Attacks and Defenses&quot;">28</a>] [<a href="#ref-35" title="&quot;Authentication of Mobile IPv6 Binding Updates and Acknowledgments&quot;">35</a>].



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      An attacker might also attempt to disrupt a mobile node's
      communications by replaying a Binding Update that the node had
      sent earlier.  If the old Binding Update was accepted, packets
      destined for the mobile node would be sent to its old location as
      opposed to its current location.

      A malicious mobile node associated to multiple home agents could
      create a routing loop amongst them.  This can be achieved when a
      mobile node binds one home address located on a first home agent
      to another home address on a second home agent.  This type of
      binding will force the home agents to route the same packet among
      each other without knowledge that a routing loop has been created.
      Such looping problem is limited to cases where a mobile node has
      multiple home agents and is permitted to be associated with the
      multiple home agents.  For the single home agent case, a policy at
      the home agent would prevent the binding of one home address to
      another home address hosted by the same home agent.

      The potential problems caused by such routing loops in this
      scenario can be substantially reduced by use of the Tunnel-Limit
      Option specified in <a href="./rfc2473">RFC 2473</a> [<a href="#ref-7" title="&quot;Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 Specification&quot;">7</a>].

      In conclusion, there are denial-of-service, man-in-the-middle,
      confidentiality, and impersonation threats against the parties
      involved in sending legitimate Binding Updates, the threat of
      routing loops when there are multiple home agents, and denial-of-
      service threats against any other party.

   o  Threats associated with payload packets: Payload packets exchanged
      with mobile nodes are exposed to similar threats as that of
      regular IPv6 traffic.  However, Mobile IPv6 introduces the Home
      Address destination option and a new routing header type (type 2),
      and uses tunneling headers in the payload packets.  The protocol
      must protect against potential new threats involving the use of
      these mechanisms.

      Third parties become exposed to a reflection threat via the Home
      Address destination option, unless appropriate security
      precautions are followed.  The Home Address destination option
      could be used to direct response traffic toward a node whose IP
      address appears in the option.  In this case, ingress filtering
      would not catch the forged "return address" [<a href="#ref-38" title="&quot;Security of IPv6 Routing Header and Home Address Options&quot;">38</a>] [<a href="#ref-43" title="&quot;Mobile IP Version 6 Route Optimization Security Design Background&quot;">43</a>].

      A similar threat exists with the tunnels between the mobile node
      and the home agent.  An attacker might forge tunnel packets
      between the mobile node and the home agent, making it appear that
      the traffic is coming from the mobile node when it is not.  Note
      that an attacker who is able to forge tunnel packets would



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      typically also be able to forge packets that appear to come
      directly from the mobile node.  This is not a new threat as such.
      However, it may make it easier for attackers to escape detection
      by avoiding ingress filtering and packet tracing mechanisms.
      Furthermore, spoofed tunnel packets might be used to gain access
      to the home network.

      Finally, a routing header could also be used in reflection
      attacks, and in attacks designed to bypass firewalls.  The
      generality of the regular routing header would allow circumvention
      of IP-address based rules in firewalls.  It would also allow
      reflection of traffic to other nodes.  These threats exist with
      routing headers in general, even if the usage that Mobile IPv6
      requires is safe.

   o  Threats associated with dynamic home agent and mobile prefix
      discovery.

   o  Threats against the Mobile IPv6 security mechanisms themselves: An
      attacker might, for instance, lure the participants into executing
      expensive cryptographic operations or allocating memory for the
      purpose of keeping state.  The victim node would have no resources
      left to handle other tasks.

   As a fundamental service in an IPv6 stack, Mobile IPv6 is expected to
   be deployed in most nodes of the IPv6 Internet.  The above threats
   should therefore be considered as being applicable to the whole
   Internet.

   It should also be noted that some additional threats result from
   movements as such, even without the involvement of mobility
   protocols.  Mobile nodes must be capable to defend themselves in the
   networks that they visit, as typical perimeter defenses applied in
   the home network no longer protect them.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.2" href="#section-15.2">15.2</a>.  Features</span>

   This specification provides a series of features designed to mitigate
   the risk introduced by the threats listed above.  The main security
   features are the following:

   o  Reverse tunneling as a mandatory feature.

   o  Protection of Binding Updates sent to home agents.

   o  Protection of Binding Updates sent to correspondent nodes.





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   o  Protection against reflection attacks that use the Home Address
      destination option.

   o  Protection of tunnels between the mobile node and the home agent.

   o  Closing routing header vulnerabilities.

   o  Mitigating denial-of-service threats to the Mobile IPv6 security
      mechanisms themselves.

   The support for encrypted reverse tunneling (see <a href="#section-11.3.1">Section 11.3.1</a>)
   allows mobile nodes to defeat certain kinds of traffic analysis.

   Protecting those Binding Updates that are sent to home agents and
   those that are sent to arbitrary correspondent nodes requires very
   different security solutions due to the different situations.  Mobile
   nodes and home agents are naturally expected to be subject to the
   network administration of the home domain.

   Thus, they can and are supposed to have a security association that
   can be used to reliably authenticate the exchanged messages.  See
   <a href="#section-5.1">Section 5.1</a> for the description of the protocol mechanisms, and
   <a href="#section-15.3">Section 15.3</a> below for a discussion of the resulting level of
   security.

   It is expected that Mobile IPv6 route optimization will be used on a
   global basis between nodes belonging to different administrative
   domains.  It would be a very demanding task to build an
   authentication infrastructure on this scale.  Furthermore, a
   traditional authentication infrastructure cannot be easily used to
   authenticate IP addresses because IP addresses can change often.  It
   is not sufficient to just authenticate the mobile nodes;
   authorization to claim the right to use an address is needed as well.
   Thus, an "infrastructureless" approach is necessary.  The chosen
   infrastructureless method is described in <a href="#section-5.2">Section 5.2</a>, and
   <a href="#section-15.4">Section 15.4</a> discusses the resulting security level and the design
   rationale of this approach.

   Specific rules guide the use of the Home Address destination option,
   the routing header, and the tunneling headers in the payload packets.
   These rules are necessary to remove the vulnerabilities associated
   with their unrestricted use.  The effect of the rules is discussed in
   Sections <a href="#section-15.7">15.7</a>, <a href="#section-15.8">15.8</a>, and <a href="#section-15.9">15.9</a>.

   Denial-of-service threats against Mobile IPv6 security mechanisms
   themselves concern mainly the Binding Update procedures with
   correspondent nodes.  The protocol has been designed to limit the
   effects of such attacks, as will be described in <a href="#section-15.4.5">Section 15.4.5</a>.



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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.3" href="#section-15.3">15.3</a>.  Binding Updates to Home Agent</span>

   Signaling between the mobile node and the home agent requires message
   integrity.  This is necessary to assure the home agent that a Binding
   Update is from a legitimate mobile node.  In addition, correct
   ordering and anti-replay protection are optionally needed.

   IPsec ESP protects the integrity of the Binding Updates and Binding
   Acknowledgements by securing mobility messages between the mobile
   node and the home agent.

   IPsec can provide anti-replay protection only if dynamic keying is
   used (which may not always be the case).  IPsec does not guarantee
   correct ordering of packets, only that they have not been replayed.
   Because of this, sequence numbers within the Mobile IPv6 messages are
   used to ensure correct ordering (see <a href="#section-5.1">Section 5.1</a>).  However, if the
   16-bit Mobile IPv6 sequence number space is cycled through, or the
   home agent reboots and loses its state regarding the sequence
   numbers, replay and reordering attacks become possible.  The use of
   dynamic keying, IPsec anti-replay protection, and the Mobile IPv6
   sequence numbers can together prevent such attacks.  It is also
   recommended that use of non-volatile storage be considered for home
   agents, to avoid losing their state.

   A sliding window scheme is used for the sequence numbers.  The
   protection against replays and reordering attacks without a key
   management mechanism works when the attacker remembers up to a
   maximum of 2**15 Binding Updates.

   The above mechanisms do not show that the care-of address given in
   the Binding Update is correct.  This opens the possibility for
   denial-of-service attacks against third parties.  However, since the
   mobile node and home agent have a security association, the home
   agent can always identify an ill-behaving mobile node.  This allows
   the home agent operator to discontinue the mobile node's service, and
   possibly take further actions based on the business relationship with
   the mobile node's owner.

   Note that the use of a single pair of manually keyed security
   associations conflicts with the generation of a new home address [<a href="#ref-21" title="&quot;Privacy Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6&quot;">21</a>]
   for the mobile node, or with the adoption of a new home subnet
   prefix.  This is because IPsec security associations are bound to the
   used addresses.  While certificate-based automatic keying alleviates
   this problem to an extent, it is still necessary to ensure that a
   given mobile node cannot send Binding Updates for the address of
   another mobile node.  In general, this leads to the inclusion of home
   addresses in certificates in the Subject AltName field.  This again
   limits the introduction of new addresses without either manual or



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   automatic procedures to establish new certificates.  Therefore, this
   specification restricts the generation of new home addresses (for any
   reason) to those situations where a security association or
   certificate for the new address already exists.

   Support for IKEv2 has been specified as optional.  The following
   should be observed about the use of manual keying:

   o  As discussed above, with manually keyed IPsec, only a limited form
      of protection exists against replay and reordering attacks.  A
      vulnerability exists if either the sequence number space is cycled
      through or the home agent reboots and forgets its sequence numbers
      (and uses volatile memory to store the sequence numbers).

      Assuming the mobile node moves continuously every 10 minutes, it
      takes roughly 455 days before the sequence number space has been
      cycled through.  Typical movement patterns rarely reach this high
      frequency today.

   o  A mobile node and its home agent belong to the same domain.  If
      this were not the case, manual keying would not be possible [<a href="#ref-42" title="&quot;Guidelines for Cryptographic Key Management&quot;">42</a>],
      but in Mobile IPv6 only these two parties need to know the
      manually configured keys.  Similarly, we note that Mobile IPv6
      employs standard block ciphers in IPsec, and is not vulnerable to
      problems associated with stream ciphers and manual keying.

   o  It is expected that the owner of the mobile node and the
      administrator of the home agent agree on the used keys and other
      parameters with some off-line mechanism.

   The use of IKEv2 with Mobile IPv6 is documented in more detail in
   [<a href="#ref-20" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Operation with IKEv2 and the Revised IPsec Architecture&quot;">20</a>].  The following should be observed regarding the use of IKEv2:

   o  It is necessary to prevent a mobile node from claiming another
      mobile node's home address.  The home agent must verify that the
      mobile node trying to negotiate the SA for a particular home
      address is authorized for that home address.  This implies that
      even with the use of IKEv2, a policy entry needs to be configured
      for each home address served by the home agent.

      It may be possible to include home addresses in the Subject
      AltName field of certificate to avoid this.  However,
      implementations are not guaranteed to support the use of a
      particular IP address (care-of address) while another address
      (home address) appears in the certificate.  In any case, even this
      approach would require user-specific tasks in the certificate
      authority.




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   o  Due to the problems outlined in <a href="#section-11.3.2">Section 11.3.2</a>, the IKEv2 SA
      between the mobile node and its home agent is established using
      the mobile node's current care-of address.  This implies that when
      the mobile node moves to a new location, it may have to
      re-establish an IKEv2 security association.  A Key Management
      Mobility Capability (K) flag is provided for implementations that
      can update the IKEv2 endpoints without re-establishing an IKEv2
      security association, but the support for this behavior is
      optional.

   o  Nevertheless, even if per-mobile node configuration is required
      with IKEv2, an important benefit of IKEv2 is that it automates the
      negotiation of cryptographic parameters, including the Security
      Parameter Indices (SPIs), cryptographic algorithms, and so on.
      Thus, less configuration information is needed.

   o  The frequency of movements in some link layers or deployment
      scenarios may be high enough to make replay and reordering attacks
      possible, if only manual keying is used.  IKEv2 SHOULD be used in
      such cases.  Potentially vulnerable scenarios involve continuous
      movement through small cells, or uncontrolled alternation between
      available network attachment points.

   o  Similarly, in some deployment scenarios the number of mobile nodes
      may be very large.  In these cases, it can be necessary to use
      automatic mechanisms to reduce the management effort in the
      administration of cryptographic parameters, even if some per-
      mobile node configuration is always needed.  IKEv2 SHOULD also be
      used in such cases.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4" href="#section-15.4">15.4</a>.  Binding Updates to Correspondent Nodes</span>

   The motivation for designing the return routability procedure was to
   have sufficient support for Mobile IPv6, without creating significant
   new security problems.  The goal for this procedure was not to
   protect against attacks that were already possible before the
   introduction of Mobile IPv6.

   The next sections will describe the security properties of the used
   method, both from the point of view of possible on-path attackers who
   can see those cryptographic values that have been sent in the clear
   (Sections <a href="#section-15.4.2">15.4.2</a> and <a href="#section-15.4.3">15.4.3</a>) and from the point of view of other
   attackers (<a href="#section-15.4.6">Section 15.4.6</a>).








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<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4.1" href="#section-15.4.1">15.4.1</a>.  Overview</span>

   The chosen infrastructureless method verifies that the mobile node is
   "live" (that is, it responds to probes) at its home and care-of
   addresses.  <a href="#section-5.2">Section 5.2</a> describes the return routability procedure in
   detail.  The procedure uses the following principles:

   o  A message exchange verifies that the mobile node is reachable at
      its addresses, i.e., is at least able to transmit and receive
      traffic at both the home and care-of addresses.

   o  The eventual Binding Update is cryptographically bound to the
      tokens supplied in the exchanged messages.

   o  Symmetric exchanges are employed to avoid the use of this protocol
      in reflection attacks.  In a symmetric exchange, the responses are
      always sent to the same address from which the request was sent.

   o  The correspondent node operates in a stateless manner until it
      receives a fully authorized Binding Update.

   o  Some additional protection is provided by encrypting the tunnels
      between the mobile node and home agent with IPsec ESP.  As the
      tunnel also transports the nonce exchanges, the ability of
      attackers to see these nonces is limited.  For instance, this
      prevents attacks from being launched from the mobile node's
      current foreign link, even when no link-layer confidentiality is
      available.

      The resulting level of security is in theory the same even without
      this additional protection: the return routability tokens are
      still exposed only to one path within the whole Internet.
      However, the mobile nodes are often found on an insecure link,
      such as a public access Wireless LAN.  Thus, in many cases, this
      addition makes a practical difference.

   For further information about the design rationale of the return
   routability procedure, see [<a href="#ref-28" title="&quot;MIPv6 BU Attacks and Defenses&quot;">28</a>] [<a href="#ref-35" title="&quot;Authentication of Mobile IPv6 Binding Updates and Acknowledgments&quot;">35</a>] [<a href="#ref-34" title="&quot;Securing MIPv6 BUs using return routability (BU3WAY)&quot;">34</a>] [<a href="#ref-43" title="&quot;Mobile IP Version 6 Route Optimization Security Design Background&quot;">43</a>].  The mechanisms used
   have been adopted from these documents.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4.2" href="#section-15.4.2">15.4.2</a>.  Achieved Security Properties</span>

   The return routability procedure protects Binding Updates against all
   attackers who are unable to monitor the path between the home agent
   and the correspondent node.  The procedure does not defend against
   attackers who can monitor this path.  Note that such attackers are in
   any case able to mount an active attack against the mobile node when




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   it is at its home location.  The possibility of such attacks is not
   an impediment to the deployment of Mobile IPv6 because these attacks
   are possible regardless of whether or not Mobile IPv6 is in use.

   This procedure also protects against denial-of-service attacks in
   which the attacker pretends to be mobile, but uses the victim's
   address as the care-of address.  This would cause the correspondent
   node to send the victim some unexpected traffic.  This procedure
   defends against these attacks by requiring at least the passive
   presence of the attacker at the care-of address or on the path from
   the correspondent to the care-of address.  Normally, this will be the
   mobile node.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4.3" href="#section-15.4.3">15.4.3</a>.  Comparison to Regular IPv6 Communications</span>

   This section discusses the protection offered by the return
   routability method by comparing it to the security of regular IPv6
   communications.  We will divide vulnerabilities into three classes:
   (1) those related to attackers on the local network of the mobile
   node, home agent, or the correspondent node, (2) those related to
   attackers on the path between the home network and the correspondent
   node, and (3) off-path attackers, i.e., the rest of the Internet.

   We will now discuss the vulnerabilities of regular IPv6
   communications.  The on-link vulnerabilities of IPv6 communications
   include denial-of-service, masquerading, man-in-the-middle,
   eavesdropping, and other attacks.  These attacks can be launched
   through spoofing Router Discovery, Neighbor Discovery, and other IPv6
   mechanisms.  Some of these attacks can be prevented with the use of
   cryptographic protection in the packets.

   A similar situation exists with on-path attackers.  That is, without
   cryptographic protection, the traffic is completely vulnerable.

   Assuming that attackers have not penetrated the security of the
   Internet routing protocols, attacks are much harder to launch from
   off-path locations.  Attacks that can be launched from these
   locations are mainly denial-of-service attacks, such as flooding
   and/or reflection attacks.  It is not possible for an off-path
   attacker to become a man in the middle.

   Next, we will consider the vulnerabilities that exist when IPv6 is
   used together with Mobile IPv6 and the return routability procedure.
   On the local link, the vulnerabilities are the same as those in IPv6,
   but masquerade and man-in-the-middle attacks can now also be launched
   against future communications, and not just against current
   communications.  If a Binding Update was sent while the attacker was
   present on the link, its effects remain for the lifetime of the



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   binding.  This happens even if the attacker moves away from the link.
   In contrast, an attacker who uses only plain IPv6 generally has to
   stay on the link in order to continue the attack.  Note that in order
   to launch these new attacks, the IP address of the victim must be
   known.  This makes this attack feasible, mainly in the context of
   well-known interface IDs, such as those already appearing in the
   traffic on the link or registered in the DNS.

   On-path attackers can exploit similar vulnerabilities as in regular
   IPv6.  There are some minor differences, however.  Masquerade, man-
   in-the-middle, and denial-of-service attacks can be launched with
   just the interception of a few packets, whereas in regular IPv6 it is
   necessary to intercept every packet.  The effect of the attacks is
   the same regardless of the method, however.  In any case, the most
   difficult task an attacker faces in these attacks is getting on the
   right path.

   The vulnerabilities for off-path attackers are the same as in regular
   IPv6.  Those nodes that are not on the path between the home agent
   and the correspondent node will not be able to receive the home
   address probe messages.

   In conclusion, we can state the following main results from this
   comparison:

   o  Return routability prevents any off-path attacks beyond those that
      are already possible in regular IPv6.  This is the most important
      result, preventing attackers on the Internet from exploiting any
      vulnerabilities.

   o  Vulnerabilities to attackers on the home agent link, the
      correspondent node link, and the path between them are roughly the
      same as in regular IPv6.

   o  However, one difference is that in basic IPv6 an on-path attacker
      must be constantly present on the link or the path, whereas with
      Mobile IPv6, an attacker can leave a binding behind after moving
      away.

      For this reason, this specification limits the creation of
      bindings to at most MAX_TOKEN_LIFETIME seconds after the last
      routability check has been performed, and limits the duration of a
      binding to at most MAX_RR_BINDING_LIFETIME seconds.  With these
      limitations, attackers cannot take any practical advantages of
      this vulnerability.






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   o  There are some other minor differences, such as an effect to the
      denial-of-service vulnerabilities.  These can be considered to be
      insignificant.

   o  The path between the home agent and a correspondent node is
      typically easiest to attack on the links at either end, in
      particular if these links are publicly accessible wireless LANs.
      Attacks against the routers or switches on the path are typically
      harder to accomplish.  The security on layer 2 of the links plays
      then a major role in the resulting overall network security.
      Similarly, security of IPv6 Neighbor and Router Discovery on these
      links has a large impact.  If these were secured using some new
      technology in the future, this could change the situation
      regarding the easiest point of attack.

   For a more in-depth discussion of these issues, see [<a href="#ref-43" title="&quot;Mobile IP Version 6 Route Optimization Security Design Background&quot;">43</a>].

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4.4" href="#section-15.4.4">15.4.4</a>.  Replay Attacks</span>

   The return routability procedure also protects the participants
   against replayed Binding Updates.  The attacker is unable replay the
   same message due to the sequence number that is a part of the Binding
   Update.  It is also unable to modify the Binding Update since the MAC
   verification would fail after such a modification.

   Care must be taken when removing bindings at the correspondent node,
   however.  If a binding is removed while the nonce used in its
   creation is still valid, an attacker could replay the old Binding
   Update.  Rules outlined in <a href="#section-5.2.8">Section 5.2.8</a> ensure that this cannot
   happen.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4.5" href="#section-15.4.5">15.4.5</a>.  Denial-of-Service Attacks</span>

   The return routability procedure has protection against resource
   exhaustion denial-of-service attacks.  The correspondent nodes do not
   retain any state about individual mobile nodes until an authentic
   Binding Update arrives.  This is achieved through the construct of
   keygen tokens from the nonces and node keys that are not specific to
   individual mobile nodes.  The keygen tokens can be reconstructed by
   the correspondent node, based on the home and care-of address
   information that arrives with the Binding Update.  This means that
   the correspondent nodes are safe against memory exhaustion attacks
   except where on-path attackers are concerned.  Due to the use of
   symmetric cryptography, the correspondent nodes are relatively safe
   against CPU resource exhaustion attacks as well.






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   Nevertheless, as [<a href="#ref-28" title="&quot;MIPv6 BU Attacks and Defenses&quot;">28</a>] describes, there are situations in which it is
   impossible for the mobile and correspondent nodes to determine if
   they actually need a binding or whether they just have been fooled
   into believing so by an attacker.  Therefore, it is necessary to
   consider situations where such attacks are being made.

   Even if route optimization is a very important optimization, it is
   still only an optimization.  A mobile node can communicate with a
   correspondent node even if the correspondent refuses to accept any
   Binding Updates.  However, performance will suffer because packets
   from the correspondent node to the mobile node will be routed via the
   mobile's home agent rather than a more direct route.  A correspondent
   node can protect itself against some of these resource exhaustion
   attacks as follows.  If the correspondent node is flooded with a
   large number of Binding Updates that fail the cryptographic integrity
   checks, it can stop processing Binding Updates.  If a correspondent
   node finds that it is spending more resources on checking bogus
   Binding Updates than it is likely to save by accepting genuine
   Binding Updates, then it may silently discard some or all Binding
   Updates without performing any cryptographic operations.

   Layers above IP can usually provide additional information to help
   determine whether there is a need to establish a binding with a
   specific peer.  For example, TCP knows if the node has a queue of
   data that it is trying to send to a peer.  An implementation of this
   specification is not required to make use of information from higher
   protocol layers, but some implementations are likely to be able to
   manage resources more effectively by making use of such information.

   We also require that all implementations be capable of
   administratively disabling route optimization.

<span class="h4"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.4.6" href="#section-15.4.6">15.4.6</a>.  Key Lengths</span>

   Attackers can try to break the return routability procedure in many
   ways.  <a href="#section-15.4.2">Section 15.4.2</a> discusses the situation where the attacker can
   see the cryptographic values sent in the clear, and <a href="#section-15.4.3">Section 15.4.3</a>
   discusses the impact this has on IPv6 communications.  This section
   discusses whether attackers can guess the correct values without
   seeing them.

   While the return routability procedure is in progress, 64-bit cookies
   are used to protect spoofed responses.  This is believed to be
   sufficient, given that to blindly spoof a response a very large
   number of messages would have to be sent before success would be
   probable.





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   The tokens used in the return routability procedure provide together
   128 bits of information.  This information is used internally as
   input to a hash function to produce a 160-bit quantity suitable for
   producing the keyed hash in the Binding Update using the HMAC_SHA1
   algorithm.  The final keyed hash length is 96 bits.  The limiting
   factors in this case are the input token lengths and the final keyed
   hash length.  The internal hash function application does not reduce
   the entropy.

   The 96-bit final keyed hash is of typical size and is believed to be
   secure.  The 128-bit input from the tokens is broken in two pieces,
   the home keygen token and the care-of keygen token.  An attacker can
   try to guess the correct cookie value, but again this would require a
   large number of messages (an the average 2**63 messages for one or
   2**127 for two).  Furthermore, given that the cookies are valid only
   for a short period of time, the attack has to keep a high constant
   message rate to achieve a lasting effect.  This does not appear
   practical.

   When the mobile node is returning home, it is allowed to use just the
   home keygen token of 64 bits.  This is less than 128 bits, but
   attacking it blindly would still require a large number of messages
   to be sent.  If the attacker is on the path and capable of seeing the
   Binding Update, it could conceivably break the keyed hash with brute
   force.  However, in this case the attacker has to be on the path,
   which appears to offer easier ways for denial of service than
   preventing route optimization.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.5" href="#section-15.5">15.5</a>.  Dynamic Home Agent Address Discovery</span>

   The dynamic home agent address discovery function could be used to
   learn the addresses of home agents in the home network.

   The ability to learn addresses of nodes may be useful to attackers
   because brute-force scanning of the address space is not practical
   with IPv6.  Thus, they could benefit from any means that make mapping
   the networks easier.  For example, if a security threat targeted at
   routers or even home agents is discovered, having a simple ICMP
   mechanism to easily find out possible targets may prove to be an
   additional (though minor) security risk.

   This document does not define any authentication mechanism for
   dynamic home agent address discovery messages.  Therefore, the home
   agent cannot verify the home address of the mobile node that
   requested the list of home agents.






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   Apart from discovering the address(es) of home agents, attackers will
   not be able to learn much from this information, and mobile nodes
   cannot be tricked into using wrong home agents, as all other
   communication with the home agents is secure.

   In cases where additional security is needed, one may consider
   instead the use of MIPv6 bootstrapping [<a href="#ref-22" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario&quot;">22</a>], (based on DNS SRV
   Resource Records [<a href="#ref-10" title="&quot;A DNS RR for specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)&quot;">10</a>]) in conjunction with security mechanisms
   suggested in these specifications.  In that solution, security is
   provided by the DNS Security (DNSSEC) [<a href="#ref-13" title="&quot;DNS Security Introduction and Requirements&quot;">13</a>] framework.  The needed
   pre-configured data on the mobile node for this mechanism is the
   domain name of the mobile service provider, which is marginally
   better than the home subnet prefix.  For the security, a trust anchor
   that dominates the domain is needed.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.6" href="#section-15.6">15.6</a>.  Mobile Prefix Discovery</span>

   The mobile prefix discovery function may leak interesting information
   about network topology and prefix lifetimes to eavesdroppers; for
   this reason, requests for this information have to be authenticated.
   Responses and unsolicited prefix information needs to be
   authenticated to prevent the mobile nodes from being tricked into
   believing false information about the prefixes and possibly
   preventing communications with the existing addresses.  Optionally,
   encryption may be applied to prevent leakage of the prefix
   information.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.7" href="#section-15.7">15.7</a>.  Tunneling via the Home Agent</span>

   Tunnels between the mobile node and the home agent can be protected
   by ensuring proper use of source addresses, and optional
   cryptographic protection.  These procedures are discussed in
   <a href="#section-5.5">Section 5.5</a>.

   Binding Updates to the home agents are secure.  When receiving
   tunneled traffic, the home agent verifies that the outer IP address
   corresponds to the current location of the mobile node.  This acts as
   a weak form of protection against spoofing packets that appear to
   come from the mobile node.  This is particularly useful, if no end-
   to-end security is being applied between the mobile and correspondent
   nodes.  The outer IP address check prevents attacks where the
   attacker is controlled by ingress filtering.  It also prevents
   attacks when the attacker does not know the current care-of address
   of the mobile node.  Attackers who know the care-of address and are
   not controlled by ingress filtering could still send traffic through
   the home agent.  This includes attackers on the same local link as
   the mobile node is currently on.  But such attackers could send
   packets that appear to come from the mobile node without attacking



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   the tunnel; the attacker could simply send packets with the source
   address set to the mobile node's home address.  However, this attack
   does not work if the final destination of the packet is in the home
   network, and some form of perimeter defense is being applied for
   packets sent to those destinations.  In such cases it is recommended
   that either end-to-end security or additional tunnel protection be
   applied, as is usual in remote access situations.

   Home agents and mobile nodes may use IPsec ESP to protect payload
   packets tunneled between themselves.  This is useful for protecting
   communications against attackers on the path of the tunnel.

   When a unique-local address (ULA, <a href="./rfc4193">RFC 4193</a> [<a href="#ref-15" title="&quot;Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses&quot;">15</a>]) is used as a home
   address, reverse tunneling can be used to send local traffic from
   another location.  Administrators should be aware of this when
   allowing such home addresses.  In particular, the outer IP address
   check described above is not sufficient against all attackers.  The
   use of encrypted tunnels is particularly useful for these kinds of
   home addresses.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.8" href="#section-15.8">15.8</a>.  Home Address Option</span>

   When the mobile node sends packets directly to the correspondent
   node, the Source Address field of the packet's IPv6 header is the
   care-of address.  Therefore, ingress filtering [<a href="#ref-27" title="&quot;Network Ingress Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source Address Spoofing&quot;">27</a>] works in the
   usual manner even for mobile nodes, as the Source Address is
   topologically correct.  The Home Address option is used to inform the
   correspondent node of the mobile node's home address.

   However, the care-of address in the Source Address field does not
   survive in replies sent by the correspondent node unless it has a
   binding for this mobile node.  Also, not all attacker tracing
   mechanisms work when packets are being reflected through
   correspondent nodes using the Home Address option.  For these
   reasons, this specification restricts the use of the Home Address
   option.  It may only be used when a binding has already been
   established with the participation of the node at the home address,
   as described in Sections <a href="#section-5.5">5.5</a> and <a href="#section-6.3">6.3</a>.  This prevents reflection
   attacks through the use of the Home Address option.  It also ensures
   that the correspondent nodes reply to the same address that the
   mobile node sends traffic from.

   No special authentication of the Home Address option is required
   beyond the above, but note that if the IPv6 header of a packet is
   covered by IPsec Authentication Header, then that authentication
   covers the Home Address option as well.  Thus, even when
   authentication is used in the IPv6 header, the security of the Source
   Address field in the IPv6 header is not compromised by the presence



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   of a Home Address option.  Without authentication of the packet, any
   field in the IPv6 header including the Source Address field or any
   other part of the packet and the Home Address option can be forged or
   modified in transit.  In this case, the contents of the Home Address
   option is no more suspect than any other part of the packet.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.9" href="#section-15.9">15.9</a>.  Type 2 Routing Header</span>

   The definition of the type 2 routing header is described in
   <a href="#section-6.4">Section 6.4</a>.  This definition and the associated processing rules
   have been chosen so that the header cannot be used for what is
   traditionally viewed as source routing.  In particular, the home
   address in the routing header will always have to be assigned to the
   home address of the receiving node; otherwise, the packet will be
   dropped.

   Generally, source routing has a number of security concerns.  These
   include the automatic reversal of unauthenticated source routes
   (which is an issue for IPv4, but not for IPv6).  Another concern is
   the ability to use source routing to "jump" between nodes inside, as
   well as outside, a firewall.  These security concerns are not issues
   in Mobile IPv6, due to the rules mentioned above.

   In essence the semantics of the type 2 routing header is the same as
   a special form of IP-in-IP tunneling where the inner and outer source
   addresses are the same.

   This implies that a device that implements the filtering of packets
   should be able to distinguish between a type 2 routing header and
   other routing headers, as required in <a href="#section-8.3">Section 8.3</a>.  This is necessary
   in order to allow Mobile IPv6 traffic while still having the option
   of filtering out other uses of routing headers.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-15.10" href="#section-15.10">15.10</a>.  SHA-1 Secure Enough for Mobile IPv6 Control Messages</span>

   This document relies on hash-based message authentication codes
   (HMAC) computed using the SHA-1 [<a href="#ref-11" title="&quot;Secure Hash Standard&quot;">11</a>] hash algorithm for the home
   keygen token and care-of keygen token, as well as the authentication
   fields in the binding update and binding authorization data (see
   <a href="#section-5.2.4">Section 5.2.4</a>).  While SHA-1 has been deprecated for some
   cryptographic mechanisms, SHA-1 is considered secure for the
   foreseeable future when used as specified here.  For additional
   details, see [<a href="#ref-39" title="&quot;Security Considerations for the SHA-0 and SHA-1 Message-Digest Algorithms&quot;">39</a>].








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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-16" href="#section-16">16</a>.  Contributors</span>

   Work done by Tuomas Aura, Mike Roe, Greg O'Shea, Pekka Nikander, Erik
   Nordmark, and Michael Thomas shaped the return routability protocols
   described in [<a href="#ref-35" title="&quot;Authentication of Mobile IPv6 Binding Updates and Acknowledgments&quot;">35</a>].

   Significant contributions were made by members of the Mobile IPv6
   Security Design Team, including (in alphabetical order) Gabriel
   Montenegro, Pekka Nikander, and Erik Nordmark.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-17" href="#section-17">17</a>.  Acknowledgements</span>

   We would like to thank the members of the Mobile IP, Mobility
   Extensions for IPv6, and IPng Working Groups for their comments and
   suggestions on this work.  We would particularly like to thank (in
   alphabetical order) Fred Baker, Josh Broch, Samita Chakrabarti,
   Robert Chalmers, Noel Chiappa, Jean-Michel Combes, Greg Daley, Vijay
   Devarapalli, Rich Draves, Francis Dupont, Ashutosh Dutta, Arnaud
   Ebalard, Wesley Eddy, Thomas Eklund, Jun-Ichiro Itojun Hagino, Brian
   Haley, Marc Hasson, John Ioannidis, James Kempf, Rajeev Koodli,
   Suresh Krishnan, Krishna Kumar, T.J. Kniveton, Joe Lau, Aime Le
   Rouzic, Julien Laganier, Jiwoong Lee, Benjamin Lim, Vesa-Matti
   Mantyla, Kevin Miles, Glenn Morrow, Ahmad Muhanna, Thomas Narten,
   Karen Nielsen, Simon Nybroe, David Oran, Mohan Parthasarathy,
   Basavaraj Patil, Brett Pentland, Lars Henrik Petander, Alexandru
   Petrescu, Mattias Petterson, Ken Powell, Ed Remmell, Phil Roberts,
   Patrice Romand, Luis A. Sanchez, Pekka Savola, Jeff Schiller, Arvind
   Sevalkar, Keiichi Shima, Tom Soderlund, Hesham Soliman, Jim Solomon,
   Tapio Suihko, Dave Thaler, Pascal Thubert, Benny Van Houdt, Jon-Olov
   Vatn, Ryuji Wakikawa, Kilian Weniger, Carl E. Williams, Vladislav
   Yasevich, Alper Yegin, and Xinhua Zhao, for their detailed reviews of
   earlier versions of this document.  Their suggestions have helped to
   improve both the design and presentation of the protocol.

   We would also like to thank the participants of the Mobile IPv6
   testing event (1999), implementers who participated in Mobile IPv6
   interoperability testing at Connectathons (2000, 2001, 2002, and
   2003), and the participants at the ETSI interoperability testing
   (2000, 2002).  Finally, we would like to thank the TAHI project that
   has provided test suites for Mobile IPv6.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-18" href="#section-18">18</a>.  References</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-18.1" href="#section-18.1">18.1</a>.  Normative References</span>

   [<a id="ref-1">1</a>]   Krawczyk, H., Bellare, M., and R. Canetti, "HMAC: Keyed-Hashing
         for Message Authentication", <a href="./rfc2104">RFC 2104</a>, February 1997.




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   [<a id="ref-2">2</a>]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
         Levels", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp14">BCP 14</a>, <a href="./rfc2119">RFC 2119</a>, March 1997.

   [<a id="ref-3">3</a>]   Kent, S. and K. Seo, "Security Architecture for the Internet
         Protocol", <a href="./rfc4301">RFC 4301</a>, December 2005.

   [<a id="ref-4">4</a>]   Kent, S., "IP Authentication Header", <a href="./rfc4302">RFC 4302</a>, December 2005.

   [<a id="ref-5">5</a>]   Kent, S., "IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)", <a href="./rfc4303">RFC 4303</a>,
         December 2005.

   [<a id="ref-6">6</a>]   Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)
         Specification", <a href="./rfc2460">RFC 2460</a>, December 1998.

   [<a id="ref-7">7</a>]   Conta, A. and S. Deering, "Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6
         Specification", <a href="./rfc2473">RFC 2473</a>, December 1998.

   [<a id="ref-8">8</a>]   Johnson, D. and S. Deering, "Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast
         Addresses", <a href="./rfc2526">RFC 2526</a>, March 1999.

   [<a id="ref-9">9</a>]   Deering, S., Fenner, W., and B. Haberman, "Multicast Listener
         Discovery (MLD) for IPv6", <a href="./rfc2710">RFC 2710</a>, October 1999.

   [<a id="ref-10">10</a>]  Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for
         specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", <a href="./rfc2782">RFC 2782</a>,
         February 2000.

   [<a id="ref-11">11</a>]  National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Secure Hash
         Standard", FIPS PUB 180-1, April 1995,
         &lt;<a href="http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip180-1.htm">http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip180-1.htm</a>&gt;.

   [<a id="ref-12">12</a>]  Arkko, J., Devarapalli, V., and F. Dupont, "Using IPsec to
         Protect Mobile IPv6 Signaling Between Mobile Nodes and Home
         Agents", <a href="./rfc3776">RFC 3776</a>, June 2004.

   [<a id="ref-13">13</a>]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S. Rose,
         "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements", <a href="./rfc4033">RFC 4033</a>,
         March 2005.

   [<a id="ref-14">14</a>]  Eastlake, D., Schiller, J., and S. Crocker, "Randomness
         Requirements for Security", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp106">BCP 106</a>, <a href="./rfc4086">RFC 4086</a>, June 2005.

   [<a id="ref-15">15</a>]  Hinden, R. and B. Haberman, "Unique Local IPv6 Unicast
         Addresses", <a href="./rfc4193">RFC 4193</a>, October 2005.

   [<a id="ref-16">16</a>]  Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
         Architecture", <a href="./rfc4291">RFC 4291</a>, February 2006.




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   [<a id="ref-17">17</a>]  Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, "Internet Control Message
         Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
         Specification", <a href="./rfc4443">RFC 4443</a>, March 2006.

   [<a id="ref-18">18</a>]  Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
         "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", <a href="./rfc4861">RFC 4861</a>,
         September 2007.

   [<a id="ref-19">19</a>]  Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless Address
         Autoconfiguration", <a href="./rfc4862">RFC 4862</a>, September 2007.

   [<a id="ref-20">20</a>]  Devarapalli, V. and F. Dupont, "Mobile IPv6 Operation with
         IKEv2 and the Revised IPsec Architecture", <a href="./rfc4877">RFC 4877</a>,
         April 2007.

   [<a id="ref-21">21</a>]  Narten, T., Draves, R., and S. Krishnan, "Privacy Extensions
         for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6", <a href="./rfc4941">RFC 4941</a>,
         September 2007.

   [<a id="ref-22">22</a>]  Giaretta, G., Kempf, J., and V. Devarapalli, "Mobile IPv6
         Bootstrapping in Split Scenario", <a href="./rfc5026">RFC 5026</a>, October 2007.

   [<a id="ref-23">23</a>]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
         Considerations Section in RFCs", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp26">BCP 26</a>, <a href="./rfc5226">RFC 5226</a>, May 2008.

   [<a id="ref-24">24</a>]  Kaufman, C., Hoffman, P., Nir, Y., and P. Eronen, "Internet Key
         Exchange Protocol Version 2 (IKEv2)", <a href="./rfc5996">RFC 5996</a>, September 2010.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-18.2" href="#section-18.2">18.2</a>.  Informative References</span>

   [<a id="ref-25">25</a>]  Perkins, C., "IP Encapsulation within IP", <a href="./rfc2003">RFC 2003</a>,
         October 1996.

   [<a id="ref-26">26</a>]  Perkins, C., "Minimal Encapsulation within IP", <a href="./rfc2004">RFC 2004</a>,
         October 1996.

   [<a id="ref-27">27</a>]  Ferguson, P. and D. Senie, "Network Ingress Filtering:
         Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source
         Address Spoofing", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp38">BCP 38</a>, <a href="./rfc2827">RFC 2827</a>, May 2000.

   [<a id="ref-28">28</a>]  Aura, T. and J. Arkko, <a style="text-decoration: none" href='https://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=datatracker.ietf.org%2Fdoc%2Fhtml%2F&amp;q=inurl:draft-+%22MIPv6+BU+Attacks+and+Defenses%22'>"MIPv6 BU Attacks and Defenses"</a>, Work
         in Progress, March 2002.

   [<a id="ref-29">29</a>]  Krishnan, S. and G. Tsirtsis, <a style="text-decoration: none" href='https://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=datatracker.ietf.org%2Fdoc%2Fhtml%2F&amp;q=inurl:draft-+%22MIPv6+Home+Link+Detection%22'>"MIPv6 Home Link Detection"</a>, Work
         in Progress, March 2008.

   [<a id="ref-30">30</a>]  Reynolds, J., "Assigned Numbers: <a href="./rfc1700">RFC 1700</a> is Replaced by an On-
         line Database", <a href="./rfc3232">RFC 3232</a>, January 2002.



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   [<a id="ref-31">31</a>]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C., and M.
         Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6
         (DHCPv6)", <a href="./rfc3315">RFC 3315</a>, July 2003.

   [<a id="ref-32">32</a>]  Perkins, C., "IP Mobility Support for IPv4, Revised", <a href="./rfc5944">RFC 5944</a>,
         November 2010.

   [<a id="ref-33">33</a>]  Draves, R., "Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol
         version 6 (IPv6)", <a href="./rfc3484">RFC 3484</a>, February 2003.

   [<a id="ref-34">34</a>]  Nordmark, E., "Securing MIPv6 BUs using return routability
         (BU3WAY)", Work in Progress, November 2001.

   [<a id="ref-35">35</a>]  Roe, M., "Authentication of Mobile IPv6 Binding Updates and
         Acknowledgments", Work in Progress, March 2002.

   [<a id="ref-36">36</a>]  Chowdhury, K. and A. Yegin, "MIP6-bootstrapping for the
         Integrated Scenario", Work in Progress, April 2008.

   [<a id="ref-37">37</a>]  Savola, P., "Use of /127 Prefix Length Between Routers
         Considered Harmful", <a href="./rfc3627">RFC 3627</a>, September 2003.

   [<a id="ref-38">38</a>]  Savola, P., "Security of IPv6 Routing Header and Home Address
         Options", Work in Progress, March 2002.

   [<a id="ref-39">39</a>]  Polk, T., Chen, L., Turner, S., and P. Hoffman, "Security
         Considerations for the SHA-0 and SHA-1 Message-Digest
         Algorithms", <a href="./rfc6194">RFC 6194</a>, March 2011.

   [<a id="ref-40">40</a>]  Manner, J. and M. Kojo, "Mobility Related Terminology",
         <a href="./rfc3753">RFC 3753</a>, June 2004.

   [<a id="ref-41">41</a>]  Vida, R. and L. Costa, "Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2
         (MLDv2) for IPv6", <a href="./rfc3810">RFC 3810</a>, June 2004.

   [<a id="ref-42">42</a>]  Bellovin, S. and R. Housley, "Guidelines for Cryptographic Key
         Management", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp107">BCP 107</a>, <a href="./rfc4107">RFC 4107</a>, June 2005.

   [<a id="ref-43">43</a>]  Nikander, P., Arkko, J., Aura, T., Montenegro, G., and E.
         Nordmark, "Mobile IP Version 6 Route Optimization Security
         Design Background", <a href="./rfc4225">RFC 4225</a>, December 2005.

   [<a id="ref-44">44</a>]  Nordmark, E., Chakrabarti, S., and J. Laganier, "IPv6 Socket
         API for Source Address Selection", <a href="./rfc5014">RFC 5014</a>, September 2007.

   [<a id="ref-45">45</a>]  Abley, J., Savola, P., and G. Neville-Neil, "Deprecation of
         Type 0 Routing Headers in IPv6", <a href="./rfc5095">RFC 5095</a>, December 2007.




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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A" href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>.  Future Extensions</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A.1" href="#appendix-A.1">A.1</a>.  Piggybacking</span>

   This document does not specify how to piggyback payload packets on
   the binding-related messages.  However, it is envisioned that this
   can be specified in a separate document when issues such as the
   interaction between piggybacking and IPsec are fully resolved (see
   also <a href="#appendix-A.3">Appendix A.3</a>).  The return routability messages can indicate
   support for piggybacking with a new mobility option.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A.2" href="#appendix-A.2">A.2</a>.  Triangular Routing</span>

   Due to the concerns about opening reflection attacks with the Home
   Address destination option, this specification requires that this
   option be verified against the Binding Cache, i.e., there must be a
   Binding Cache entry for the home address and care-of address.

   Future extensions may be specified that allow the use of unverified
   Home Address destination options in ways that do not introduce
   security issues.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A.3" href="#appendix-A.3">A.3</a>.  New Authorization Methods</span>

   While the return routability procedure provides a good level of
   security, there exist methods that have even higher levels of
   security.  Second, as discussed in <a href="#section-15.4">Section 15.4</a>, future enhancements
   of IPv6 security may cause a need to also improve the security of the
   return routability procedure.  Using IPsec as the sole method for
   authorizing Binding Updates to correspondent nodes is also possible.
   The protection of the Mobility Header for this purpose is easy,
   though one must ensure that the IPsec SA was created with appropriate
   authorization to use the home address referenced in the Binding
   Update.  For instance, a certificate used by IKEv2 to create the
   security association might contain the home address.  A future
   specification may specify how this is done.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A.4" href="#appendix-A.4">A.4</a>.  Neighbor Discovery Extensions</span>

   Future specifications may improve the efficiency of Neighbor
   Discovery tasks, which could be helpful for fast movements.  One
   factor is currently being looked at: the delays caused by the
   Duplicate Address Detection mechanism.  Currently, Duplicate Address
   Detection needs to be performed for every new care-of address as the
   mobile node moves, and for the mobile node's link-local address on
   every new link.  In particular, the need and the trade-offs of
   re-performing Duplicate Address Detection for the link-local address
   every time the mobile node moves on to new links will need to be



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   examined.  Improvements in this area are, however, generally
   applicable and progress independently from the Mobile IPv6
   specification.

   Future functional improvements may also be relevant for Mobile IPv6
   and other applications.  For instance, mechanisms that would allow
   recovery from a Duplicate Address Detection collision would be useful
   for link-local, care-of, and home addresses.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-B" href="#appendix-B">Appendix B</a>.  Changes since <a href="./rfc3775">RFC 3775</a></span>

   The following issues were identified during the evolution of the
   current document.  Discussion about most of the issues can be found
   on the [mext] working group page
   <a href="http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/mext/trac/report/6">http://trac.tools.ietf.org/wg/mext/trac/report/6</a>

   Issue #1  Last Accepted SQN [Ahmad Muhanna]

      Solution: specify that the mobile node update its binding sequence
      number to match the sequence number given in the Binding
      Acknowledgement (if the Binding Acknowledgement correctly passes
      authentication and the status is 135 (Sequence Number out of
      window).  See <a href="#section-11.7.3">Section 11.7.3</a>.

   Issue #4  Remove references to site-local addresses [George
      Tsirtsis].

      Fixed.

   Issue #5  Wrong protocol number (2 instead of 135) used in discussion
      about checksum pseudo-header.

      Fixed.  See <a href="#section-6.1.1">Section 6.1.1</a>.

   Issue #8  Application using the care-of address [Julien Laganier]

      Cite IPv6 Socket API for Source Address Selection specification
      [<a href="#ref-44" title="&quot;IPv6 Socket API for Source Address Selection&quot;">44</a>].  See <a href="#section-11.3.4">Section 11.3.4</a>.

   Issue #10  The usage of "HA lifetime" [Ryuji Wakikawa]

      The mobile node SHOULD store the list of home agents for later use
      in case the home agent currently managing the mobile node's
      care-of address forwarding should become unavailable.  See
      <a href="#section-11.4.1">Section 11.4.1</a>.






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   Issue #11  De-registration when returning home [Vijay Devarapalli]

      To be able to send and receive packets using its home address from
      the home link, the mobile node MUST send a Binding Update to its
      home agent to instruct its home agent to no longer intercept or
      tunnel packets for it.  Until the mobile node sends such a
      de-registration Binding Update, it MUST NOT attempt to send and
      receive packets using its home address from the home link.  See
      <a href="#section-11.5.5">Section 11.5.5</a>.

   Issue #12  BErr sent by HA too, not only by CN [Alexandru Petrescu]

      Fixed.  See <a href="#section-4.2">Section 4.2</a>.

   Issue #13  Home Link Detection [Suresh Krishnan]

      Proposal: Add <a href="#section-11.5.2">Section 11.5.2</a> for Home Link Detection, drawing on
      "MIPv6 Home Link Detection" [<a href="#ref-29" title="&quot;MIPv6 Home Link Detection&quot;">29</a>].

   Issue #14  References to bootstrapping [Vijay Devarapalli]

      Cite "Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario" [<a href="#ref-22" title="&quot;Mobile IPv6 Bootstrapping in Split Scenario&quot;">22</a>] and "MIP6-
      bootstrapping for the Integrated Scenario" [<a href="#ref-36" title="&quot;MIP6-bootstrapping for the Integrated Scenario&quot;">36</a>].  See <a href="#section-4.1">Section 4.1</a>.

   Issue #17  Multi-homed mobile node can cause routing loop between
      home agents [Benjamin Lim]

      Added security advisory in <a href="#section-15.1">Section 15.1</a>, to highlight risk of
      routing loop among HAs (e.g., in 3GPP):

      A malicious mobile node associated to multiple home agents could
      create a routing loop amongst them.  This would happen when a
      mobile node binds one home address located on a first home agent
      to another home address on a second home agent.

   Issue #18  Subject: Issues regarding Home Address Option and ICMP /
      Binding Errors [Fabian Mauchle]

      Proposal: Use the value in the Next Header field {50 (ESP), 51
      (AH), 135 (Mobility Header)} to determine, if a Binding Cache
      entry is required.  See <a href="#section-9.3.1">Section 9.3.1</a>.

      Proposal: If the Binding Error message was sent by the home agent,
      the mobile node SHOULD send a Binding Update to the home agent
      according to <a href="#section-11.7.1">Section 11.7.1</a>.  See <a href="#section-11.3.6">Section 11.3.6</a>.






<span class="grey">Perkins, et al.              Standards Track                  [Page 168]</span></pre>
<hr class='noprint'/><!--NewPage--><pre class='newpage'><span id="page-169" ></span>
<span class="grey"><a href="./rfc6275">RFC 6275</a>                Mobility Support in IPv6               July 2011</span>


   Issue #19  BU de-registration race condition [Kilian Weniger]

      Problem arises if de-registration arrives at home agent before an
      immediately preceding Binding Update.

      Solution: Home agent defers BCE removal after sending the Binding
      Acknowledgement.  See <a href="#section-10.3.2">Section 10.3.2</a>.

   Issue #6  Minor editorial corrections and updates.

      Update IPsec and IKE references to the revised IPsec architecture
      and IKEv2.

      Update HMAC_SHA1 [<a href="#ref-1" title="&quot;HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication&quot;">1</a>] to Normative instead of Informational.

      Include discussion (see <a href="#section-15.10">Section 15.10</a>) to inform implementers that
      HMAC_SHA1 is considered to offer sufficient protection for control
      messages as required by Mobile IPv6.

Authors' Addresses

   Charles E. Perkins (editor)
   Tellabs, Inc.
   4555 Great America Parkway, Suite 150
   Santa Clara  CA 95054
   USA

   EMail: charliep@computer.org


   David B. Johnson
   Rice University
   Dept. of Computer Science, MS 132
   6100 Main Street
   Houston  TX 77005-1892
   USA

   EMail: dbj@cs.rice.edu


   Jari Arkko
   Ericsson
   Jorvas  02420
   Finland

   EMail: jari.arkko@ericsson.com





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