TABLE OF CONTENTS Mobile IPv6 is a mobility support protocol for IPv6 at the network layer. The specification was standardized at the IETF in June 2004. The standardization process was quite slow compared to the basic IPv6 specification. The initial working group draft of Mobile IPv6 was submitted in 1996, which compares favorably with the first IPv6 draft specification which was proposed to the IPng working group in 1995. The reason for the delay in the standardization of Mobile IPv6 was the need to solve security issues associated with the protocol. Mobile IPv6 enables IPv6 nodes to send or receive packets whose source address does not match the network prefix to which they are currently attached. That is, nodes have to use a type of source spoofing technique. In the early version of the specification, the protocol required the use of IPsec to ensure the source address was valid. However, when we consider the real situation a mobile node may communicate with many other nodes for which it does not have any identification information using IPsec is almost impossible.
The IESG rejected the proposal from the Mobile IPv6 working group to standardize the protocol specification at that time, and insisted the working group propose a procedure to securely validate the source address of a mobile node. The Mobile IPv6 working group started a discussion to solve the problem in 2000 and finally developed a loose address ownership mechanism called the return routability procedure (discussed in Section 5.5.1) in 2002. The specification was accepted...
