Internet DRAFT - draft-dietz-hip-operator-issues

draft-dietz-hip-operator-issues






Internet Engineering Task Force                                 T. Dietz
Internet-Draft                                                M. Brunner
Expires: April 20, 2006                                              NEC
                                                           N. Papadoglou
                                                               V. Raptis
                                                               K. Kypris
                                                                Vodafone
                                                        October 17, 2005


                 Issues of HIP in an Operators Networks
                   draft-dietz-hip-operator-issues-00

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 20, 2006.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   This document discuss the potential issues that arise when the Host
   Identity Protocol (HIP) will be introduced in a operator network,
   especially in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) of the 3GPP systems.
   It discusses mobile network specific issues like charging, lawful



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   interception as well as common issues like where to associate the HIP
   ID or privacy issues.  The document tries to make the HIP community
   aware of those issues and wants to stimulate discussion on those
   topics.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Charging Issues  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Lawful Interception  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   4.  How HIP could improve SIP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   5.  How SIP could improve HIP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   6.  HIT creation, bootstrapping and distribution . . . . . . . . .  8
   7.  HIP Associations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   8.  HIP ID and HIT mappings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   9.  Privacy implications with HIP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   10. Problem of using DNS in the HIP architecture . . . . . . . . . 12
   11. Free Choice of Access Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   12. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   13. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   14. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 17



























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1.  Introduction

   This document presents some of the issues arising when the Host
   Identity Protocol (HIP) infrastructure is introduced in an operator
   networks architecture such as a 3GPP one.  In those mobile networks
   and especially in the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), HIP has to be
   integrated with systems used for charging, application proxies and
   registrars (SIP based) and may have to fulfill rules for lawful
   interception and the like.

   Further on the structure of mobile networks and its authentication
   methods are different from fixed networks.  Thus the association of
   the HIP ID to e.g. a SIM card could make sense in this mobile
   environment.  Also the privacy issues become more important in those
   networks than in fixed networks and the Internet.

   The document also tries to identify possible solutions in some of the
   areas and wants to stimulate discussion on the topics picked out in
   this document.

   Most of the sections present independent issues, but overall the
   document tries to cover all the different issues within an operator
   network the authors are aware of.


2.  Charging Issues

   One of the most important aspects in the design of a network
   architecture for network operators as well as for service providers
   is the functions related to charging and tariffing.  There are a
   number of models that need to be supported such as:

   o  Volume based charging

   o  Time based charging

   o  Volume and time based charging

   o  No charging

   Some of the functions/mechanism that the above charging models need
   to support are:

   o  Pre-paid and post-paid

   o  On line and Off line charging

   Most of the above models and mechanisms need to be supported by the



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   network architecture in order to allow the operator to design and
   apply flexible charging plans and differentiated tariffs.  With the
   introduction of the TCP/IP suite in the wireless communications arena
   for transporting most of the data that services and applications
   generate means that a number of changes needed to take place in the
   systems and methods used so far in the circuit switched world.  A new
   concept was introduced, known as IP flow based charging [1], which
   enables operators to maintain the current charging models even over
   IP.  The idea is to have flexible mechanisms for creating new tariffs
   based on the different IP based services.  For example, a network
   operator might want to be able to charge with different tariffs voice
   and video in a rich video call.  In order to promote the service he
   might want to offer video for free and charge only the voice traffic.
   Hence, the video traffic is zero rated when it traverses the specific
   charging functions of the network based on a flow identifier.  In
   order to be able to do this the operator needs mechanisms such as
   those introduced with IP based flow charging in 3GPP and other
   standardization bodies.

   The introduction of cryptographic Host Identifiers and in particular
   with the employment of the Host Identity Protocol (HIP) in an
   operator's network may raise issues with the current charging models
   and mechanisms.  This is due to the fact that HIP is a P2P protocol
   enabling the negotiation and establishment of an encrypted tunnel
   between 2 hosts.  Although this is a good way of establishing an end-
   to-end and secure communication channel (encrypted channel) end-to-
   end, it posses a number of issues with the existing charging model
   and mechanisms.  When the traffic passing the charging function of a
   network is encrypted, then it is very difficult to apply different
   charging rules based on the type of the traffic, i.e. differentiate
   between voice and media traffic.  Since the packets traversing the
   charging function are encrypted it not possible to look at the upper
   layers and apply different policies based on the media type, unless
   it possesses the keys in order to de-crypt the traffic.  This
   restricts the charging plans that a network operator might want to
   deploy in the future based on the different service propositions
   available.  The only available model from those outlined above that
   can be applied is volume based charging which offers no flexibility
   or differentiation of the service used.

   For this reason, there are three options foreseen solving this
   drawback.  The first is to break the e2e security association and
   terminate it at a network sub-element where the charging function may
   be applied, and from there establish another one from this node to
   the end terminal/device.  The second option is for the charging
   function to possess the keys of the sessions to be established and
   thus being able to decrypt the traffic and apply the different
   charging policies.  The deficiency with this solution is that it



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   would probably not scale in a large scale network (e.g. an operator
   network) and that in some cases (e.g. anonymity) the keys will not be
   available to the charging function.  Finally, the third and less
   desirable option is to accept this as a de-facto standard and apply
   only volume based charging although having a negative effect both to
   the customers and the operators business.


3.  Lawful Interception

   Even though wire tapping has not been standardized or will be
   standardized in the IETF [2], we need to bring up the issue here.
   Countries around the world are drafting and enacting laws to regulate
   lawful interception procedures.  National laws define local intercept
   requirements; the means and authority of conducting Lawful Intercept
   is often recorded in government legislation or regulatory mandates.
   Naturally, the base requirement would be that the interceptor is on
   path of the HIP base exchange as well as on the path of the data
   communication.  Furthermore, in order to decrypt the data traffic the
   interceptor needs to have at least one of the private keys of the
   communicating end-points for extracting the IPSec session key for
   decrypting the data communication.

   Lawful Interception could use the first two solutions presented in
   the previous section with the charging issues.  This assumes that the
   private keys are known by the operator or at least that the customers
   accept the breakage of end-to-end security.

   If the keys are generated by the user (device), it implies that
   lawful interception is not possible.  In many European countries,
   this also means that the ISP is not liable for the voice
   communication.


4.  How HIP could improve SIP

   SIP is an emerging signaling protocol that operates over the standard
   TCP/IP protocol stack.  As such it should benefit from the use of HIP
   in the same way as the rest applications.  Mobility support and
   improved security are the main advantages of using HIP.  The scope of
   this section is to discuss whether and in what way HIP actually
   affects SIP.

   SIP uses URIs in order to identify hosts in the application layer.
   It uses additional infrastructure such as registrars, redirection and
   proxy servers.  Security in SIP is handled by various techniques,
   e.g.  IPsec, TLS.  Additionally, a draft is under development in
   order for SIP to support session mobility.  Therefore, with the



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   existence of these features, it is an issue worth of investigation
   whether HIP actually improves the operation of SIP with the
   decoupling of the network and transport layers.  The main difference
   between the two proposed solutions is that SIP attempts to solve the
   problems in a higher layer than HIP does.

   With the current SIP architecture, the SIP URI is registered to an IP
   address (dynamic or static) in order to route the messages to the
   appropriate SIP agent.  If HIP is present in the network, the mapping
   from the URI to HI should be supported as well as the mapping of HI
   to the IP address of the host.  The mapping is usually accomplished
   through DNS servers.  The one-level mapping between URIs and IP
   addresses is straightforward.  On the other hand, the mapping in the
   case of HIP could be performed:

      Either through a two-level mapping (one DNS search for the mapping
      between URI and HI and an additional search for the HIT-IP
      mapping).  This requires 2 DNS servers in the network and
      introduces additional delay for the delivery of the response.

      Or through a one-level mapping where the DNS search returns both
      the HI and the IP address.  This technique requires additional
      storage space in the DNS server in order to be able to store the
      naming and addressing information in the same infrastructure.  The
      work in IETF is focusing on this solution.

   It is clear that the use of HIP increases the needed time for DNS
   resolution and modifies the requirements for the DNS infrastructure.

   In regards to security, HIP could be used to setup the IPsec security
   associations.  SIP security is accomplished through IPsec or higher
   (application) layer protocols.  IPsec is open in man-in-the-middle
   threats when HIP is not used in a communication stream.  As such the
   use of HIP shields the communication from similar vulnerabilities,
   but the response time increases due to the processing for the HIP
   base exchange.

   SIP can offer terminal mobility through the reregistration with the
   home registrar prior to a call.  For mobility support in the middle
   of a call, the moving terminal sends a re-INVITE message directly to
   the correspondent host or via the SIP proxies.  In order to shield
   the handover from security threats, SIP uses authentication or public
   key cryptography.  The main constraint of SIP mobility is the
   inability of TCP to support session mobility.  Even if a mechanism
   like M-TCP is used in order for mobility to be supported, the
   required time for the handover to be performed is considered high.
   On the other hand, HIP inherently provides mobility support to the
   higher layers without requiring optional SIP features.  Even though



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   HIP does not offer any specific advantages to SIP session mobility,
   it provides mobility support to all higher layer protocols (SIP, HIP,
   HTTP, etc.) through a unified environment and doesn't leave this
   issue to be handled at higher layers which usually results in slower
   custom solutions.

   SIP extensions have been released to enable SIP connectivity between
   hosts behind NATs and firewalls.  HIP is considered to be a better
   solution concerning NAT traversal for TCP connections since it
   decouples the transport from the network layer.

   Upon investigation of the previous issues, it is evident that HIP
   does not offer clear benefits since most of its features are
   supported through SIP extensions.  On the other hand, HIP provides
   solutions to all these issues not only to the SIP protocol but to all
   higher layer protocols with slightly improved security.


5.  How SIP could improve HIP

   There are various possible ways, where SIP could help with some
   problems of the current HIP and its deployment.

   The problem of trustfully getting the HIT of the other communication
   end-point is one of the problems.  In most experiments today,
   opportunistic HIP is used for initiating the communication.  The
   usage of the HIT DNS extension is quite some time ahead and not
   really securely deployed today.  So in environments with walled
   gardens or relatively secure handling of SIP message exchanges, SIP
   could be used for getting the HIT from one end to the other.  The HIT
   could be included in a SIP message, for example the INVITE, and
   securely sent to the host of the callee.  This then would allow for a
   normal HIP base exchange and running the voice communication over a
   secured channel.

   A problem of deploying HIP is the missing HIP infrastructure.
   Specifically, infrastructure for NAT and firewall traversal and for
   mobility solutions using the rendez-vous server.  Since the
   functionality of the rendez-vous server and a SIP registrar looks
   quite similar, a SIP registrar and SIP proxy could be used instead of
   the a rendez-vous server to lookup the current location (IP address)
   of a HIT, which has been registered using a SIP REGISTER message.  So
   basically, the I1 packet is somehow encoded into a SIP message and
   the HIT would show-up in the SIP URI.  In a more extreme case one
   would completely replace the HIP base exchange with a SIP based
   message exchange, containing the similar semantic as the HIP base
   exchange.




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   These ideas are just a first sketch where SIP could help to deploy
   HIP in a first stage.  Further investigation should be made on this
   topic.  There may be other issues where SIP could improve HIP at
   least in a first stage.


6.  HIT creation, bootstrapping and distribution

   The HIP naming scheme is based on cryptographic techniques.  IP
   addresses are decoupled from higher layer applications, while
   providing simultaneously security and the end hosts' authentication.
   The host identity in HIP is a public key which identifies a
   particular network stack and thus authentication is automatically
   enabled and the robustness to man-in-the-middle attacks is increased.

   Host identities can be either

      stored in public directories thus enabling the authentication of
      the hosts

      or can be anonymous in which case HIP can not provide
      authentication of the end host but only the encryption of the
      session with the given host.  On the other hand, anonymous HIs
      offer improved privacy to the users, since the HI is only valid
      for the current connection and cannot be correlated to a specific
      user or host.

   Multiple distribution methods for host identities can be identified
   and used in practice.  The method of distribution implies a specific
   association of the identity.

   o  One HI per network interface

   o  One HI per user terminal/device

   o  One HI per person/user.

   The HIP Associations are discussed in greater detail in the following
   section.


7.  HIP Associations

   There are several possibilities to associate a HIP ID to an entity.
   The HIP ID can be bound to a device or user terminal (PC, Server,
   etc.) which can include several network interfaces, to a network
   interface, to a person/user, to a session or to a SIM card (or
   something similar).  The list could be continued but contains the



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   most common and most important cases.  The association might depend
   also on other non technical arguments.  These depend for example on
   whether charging is based on the HIP ID or not, whether a HIP ID
   locks a customer/device into one ISPs network or similar things.

   In the following section we will discuss the advantages and
   disadvantages of binding the HIP ID to one of those entities.  It
   will conclude with a recommendation where such an ID should be
   associated to.  The rest of the document will assume that the HIP ID
   is associated as recommended here if not stated otherwise.

   Binding to a Device/User Terminal: The most natural way of a HIP ID
      association would be to bind it to a device or user terminal.  The
      goal of HIP is to separate identity and location.  With binding
      the HIP ID to the device we would identify the device no matter
      where it currently is located.  The identity would be independent
      of the interface on which the device is reached.  This method
      provides mobility support since upon handover to a different
      access network or merely a change in IP address the TCP session is
      not terminated.  The HI could either be static (built in by the
      manufacturer or assigned statically by the network operator) or
      dynamically created upon creation of the TCP session.  Only
      through the static HI approach can the HIP-enabled nodes be
      globally identified (naming feature of HIP).  The dynamic HI
      offers anonymity to the hosts even if the HI is globally unique.

   Binding to an Network Interface: If we bind the HIP ID to a network
      interface we would give a device that is multi-homed or
      incorporates several access technologies that could be used
      alternatively (e.g. a mobile phone with integrated WLAN) multiple
      identities.  The idea of HIP was, besides separating identity from
      location, to make multi-homing transparent to the other
      communication partners.  So binding a HIP ID to an interface would
      be contradictory to that goal and ongoing TCP sessions would be
      terminated if the host changes the used network.  The only benefit
      from using HIP with this distribution method is the improved
      security over the existing TCP/IP approach.

   Binding to a Person/User: We could also bind the HIP ID to a person.
      But HIP IDs should resolve to a location and should also be used
      to connect to things like web servers, mail servers or other
      services.  Also people usually use more than one device.  This
      technique offers increased flexibility but on the same time the
      technical and business complexity increases, since it requires the
      system to be able to select which device the connection should be
      directed to.  Also a method should be developed so as to correlate
      the multiple devices to the given user.  Basically, this technique
      assumes that the user should be authenticated in any device based



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      on a username and password method in order to be able to use the
      various devices and dynamically direct the traffic to them.  So
      binding to a person is not really helpful either.

   Binding to a Session: For completeness, we also mention the binding
      to a session.  If we would bind the HIP ID to a session we would
      ease the migration of sessions between devices.  But it would also
      mean that we would change the location and the device.  That would
      also mean that a device could have multiple identities.  That
      approach would only make sense in extreme cases like moving a
      service transparently from one device to another.

   Binding to a SIM Card: Binding the HIP ID to a SIM Card (or to
      something comparable) is the alternative to binding the ID to a
      device, especially in the world of mobile communication.  Since
      all mobile devices that are used today are rather similar in their
      functionality the SIM Card could be used as a substitute of the
      mobile device of the SIM Card owner.

   So the recommended bindings for a HIP ID are binding it to a device
   or if we are in the mobile world binding it to a SIM Card.  Both
   methods are valid and match the goals of the HIP architecture.  On
   the other hand restricting the association of HIP ID to physical
   devices would introduce new problems and inconveniences.  Changing
   the hardware would thus imply changing the identity.  Especially if
   the device is e.g. a mobile phone changing the phone should not
   naturally mean changing the identity.  People tend to be lazy and
   want to keep information as static as possible.  So we would like to
   introduce a new association that combines the device and SIM card
   approaches.

   We propose to bind the HIP ID to a kind of Virtual Device that would
   represent a special entity like the web server of Vodafone, the mail
   server of NEC, the mobile phone of user X or the home PC of user W.
   We think that association would give the closest match with the
   intention of the HIP goals.  It would give the possibility to change
   broken hardware (or move to a more powerful device) without changing
   the identity.  It would make multi-homing transparent and it would
   also match the current usage of identities in the mobile
   communication world.


8.  HIP ID and HIT mappings

   Since the HIP ID or its short form the HIT is only an identifier it
   is useless without mapping it to a location.  On the other hand the
   HIP ID and its HIT are numbers and are as such only hard to remember.
   Thus several lookup services are needed.



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   HIP IDs, and even HITs, are hard to remember since they are only
   digits after digits, so you need a lookup service to resolve a
   readable name like www.somewhere.com to a HIP ID or HIT.  You could
   use the good old Domain Name System (DNS) for this.  Since this
   information is rather static the current DNS is suitable for such a
   kind of translation.

   But with the HIP ID/HIT you only get the identity bound to that name.
   The location of the identity is still unknown.  Thus a second lookup
   service is needed that resolves the identity to a location.  That
   location can be defined by several different means.  The location can
   be defined by an IP address, an IMSI signal in a mobile phone network
   or any other means.

   In the case of IP addresses the DNS could be used again to map the
   identity to a location.  But if you want to support mobile nodes that
   move rather frequently then the DNS could get to slow and inflexible
   to support such a mapping.  Even if you allow dynamic DNS where
   clients can update their location the propagation delay is too high.
   If mobility is important new technologies like Distributed Hash
   Tables (DHT) are the better choice.

   That is also true for mobile phone networks.  In mobile phone
   networks services like DHT or other existing services could be used
   to map the HIP ID/HIT to the current location of the mobile device.
   Note, however, that some first implementation experiences show some
   performance problems with DHTs.

   To summarize we must state that the mapping of HIP IDs/HITs is two-
   fold.  To be used and memorized by humans you need a name to HIP ID/
   HIT mapping that could be well performed by the existing DNS.  But to
   map the HIP ID/HIT to the current location of the Virtual Device a
   new system is needed in order to support all the features HIP is
   offering.  DHT could be such a service in the IP world, but other new
   mechanisms are studied in the research arena.  Some existing services
   may be used in the mobile phone world.


9.  Privacy implications with HIP

   Currently, the base HIP architecture does not support location
   privacy.  Location privacy is the capability of preventing other
   parties from learning one's past or current location.  In the current
   HIP architecture, the resolution of a remote Host Identifier to its
   current locater can be done in various ways.  With HIP, the locater
   parameter usage on the base exchange and mobility update procedures
   discloses the current set of IP addresses (locater) used by the
   communicating HIP nodes [3].



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   Since in many large scale operator deployments, the IP address
   basically tells you something about what operator or ISP you are
   with, but you are not able to derive the geographic location.  For
   smaller scale deployment this does not hold.

   Since the HIT of the other communication party is known, any entity
   the Host Identifier is associated with (see above), will be known.
   For VoIP deployment that is actually useful in many cases.

   In summary there are no specific HIP related privacy issues, but the
   typical ones know from the Internet.  Additionally, using a rendez-
   vous server not only for mobility purposes, but also for hiding its
   current location.  This would mean, that the rendez-vous server needs
   to be improved towards running the complete communication over that
   rendez-vous server.

   On issues that arises and that is new with HIP is the traceability of
   the HIT.  Since the HIT (if not used in opportunistic mode) never
   changes an attacker could try to follow the HIT and record all the
   places the user visits.  Thus an attacker would at least be able to
   evolve a kind of profile of the user.


10.  Problem of using DNS in the HIP architecture

   If HIP should support mobility the current DNS system is not capable
   to keep up with the speed of change needed for such an application.
   The propagation of the DNS entries is to slow for frequent location
   updates.  Another issue with DNS is still the security problem.  How
   can I trust my DNS server if all users are allowed to change data on
   it?

   EDITOR NOTE: This section must be elaborated further.


11.  Free Choice of Access Technology

   A device like a mobile phone may have more than one network
   interface, each one connected to the same or to a different service
   provider network or Autonomous System (AS) via different access
   technology bearers (e.g.  UMTS, WiMax, WLAN or even a fixed access).
   In that case the device is termed as a multi-homed-host.

   In the IP world, every AS has its own IP addressing plan (public and
   private) and consequently the device's interfaces can have multiple
   and different IP addresses.  Since an IP address defines the location
   of an end-system (host) in the Internet, in that case the device
   seems to be located in different locations within the network.



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   On the other hand, HIP provides a decoupling between the inter-
   working and transport layers.  The IP address does not longer define
   both the location and the host identity, but only the location of the
   host in the network.  In case of multi-homing, the HI (Host Identity)
   is used as the end-point (device) identity, while at the same time
   the IP address represents the topological location of the device
   within the network.  This is the normal approach, since IP will be
   used only for the purpose that it was initially designed: the routing
   of data to their destinations.

   A simple scenario is presented in the following figure.

   Person  Equipment  Number       IP     Service   Service
                      of i/fs     addr    Provider

   User ----> UE1 ---> i/f1 ----> IP addr1 -> SP1   (e.g. Voice)
          |
          +-> UE2 +--> i/f1 ----> IP addr1 -> SP2   (e.g. Surveillance)
          |       +--> i/f2 ----> IP addr2 -> SP2   (e.g. Emergency)
          |
          +-> UE3 +--> i/f1 ----> IP addr1 -> SP1   (e.g. Voice)
          |       +--> i/f2 ----> IP addr2 -> SP1   (e.g. WWW)
          |       +--> i/f3 ----> IP addr3 -> SP1   (e.g. Intranet)
          |
          +-> UE4 +--> i/f1 ----> IP addr1 -> SP3   (e.g. Gaming)
                  +--> i/f2 ----> IP addr2 -> SP4   (e.g. TV/Video)

                       Figure 1: User ordinary scenario.

   A user has multiple devices (UEs) each one having a number of
   interfaces.  In every interface an IP address is assigned (public or
   private) defining in that way the service provider (SP) offering the
   bearer and/or the service.  This is a very possible scenario since
   most of the people today hold a number of devices.  One can easily
   determine that the HI can be used to easily define the user equipment
   identity in case the UE has more than one i/fs (e.g. in UE2, UE3 and
   UE4).  In this case one HI is used per UE.

   With HIP support, a Network Operator or a Service Provider in order
   to provide services to the user of the end-point, needs first to know
   his/her identity in order to authenticate the host and finally the
   user.  The storage of the private keys and HITs in a network element
   (e.g.  HLR/AuC in mobile world) is an issue for further study.

   The associations are now being established at a higher layer (the HIP
   layer).  Even in case of an IP address change, the association (and
   of course the communication session) is kept alive because the
   transport layer (e.g.  TCP) is intact from the change.  The socket



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   call is now in the following form:

         {tcp, source HIT, source port, dest HIT, dest port}

   No IP address is used anymore and in turn the transport layer is
   becoming independent from the IP layer.

   Moreover, due to the possibility of different access technology
   support, the applications shall have different QoS guarantees than
   device's interfaces can provide in accordance to the Operators
   offered user services.  For instance, from a 3G interface the user
   can make rich voice and video calls, while from the WiFi interface
   the user can have wireless access to a corporate LAN via an access
   point and from there to a Web/Email/FTP Server.  All of these
   services can occur simultaneously with no QoS degradation, a usual
   phenomenon occurred in ordinary communication bearers because the
   bearers are now independent and optimized for the service that they
   intend to support.  The device has now the possibility to
   simultaneously use multiple access technologies, to reach different
   contents.  Each access technology is used to transport the traffic
   for which it is most suitable.

   The access technology selection procedure could be done by a control
   function located in an operator network element or the device logic
   itself, based on different criteria or a combination of them (e.g.
   decrease in the communication session quality, session content,
   charging tariffs etc.)

   With the assistance of HIP, another option is that an operator can
   reroute the content transfer session, already established via a
   certain interface over the most appropriate access technology and
   consequently to another interface, depending on quality measurements
   performed by a control function installed on the operator network
   and/or the device can be able to initiate the session handover over
   another access bearer.

   In case that the bearers supported by the device are provided by
   different operators (as depicted in Figure 1), then a session
   handover between two different AS is occurred.  In that case, HITs
   storage and transport, security and QoS issues shall be carefully
   examined.

   What is happening in a case where the session transfer shall be moved
   towards a new UE (e.g. due to battery outage in a mobile phone)?  One
   possible solution is that the HLR/AuC shall keep in its database all
   the mappings between the user UEs, HIs and private keys.  In a case
   of a session transfer towards the new UE a session transfer mechanism
   (located in the device and/or the network) shall trigger the session



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   transfer procedure.

   In case that the new UE i/f IP address is belonging to a different
   network operator, then inter-AS and inter-UE session handover shall
   be performed simultaneously.

   The session transfer is for further study.


12.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.


13.  Security Considerations

   Currently there are no Security Considerations within this document.

14.  Informative References

   [1]  3GPP, "Overall high level functionality and architecture impacts
        of flow based charging; Stage 2", 3GPP TS 23.125 6.6.0,
        October 2005.

   [2]  IAB and IESG, "IETF Policy on Wiretapping", RFC 2804, May 2000.

   [3]  Matos, A., "Host Identity Protocol Location Privacy Extensions",
        draft-matos-hip-privacy-extensions-00 (work in progress),
        July 2005.






















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Authors' Addresses

   Thomas Dietz
   NEC Network Laboratories
   Kurfuersten-Anlage 36
   69115 Heidelberg
   Germany

   Email: dietz@netlab.nec.de


   Marcus Brunner
   NEC Network Laboratories
   Kurfuersten-Anlage 36
   69115 Heidelberg
   Germany

   Email: brunner@netlab.nec.de


   Nick Papadoglou
   Vodafone Group Services Limited
   Voafone House
   The Connection
   Newbury, Berkshire  RG142FN
   Great Britain

   Email: Nick.Papadoglou@vodafone.com


   Vasilios Raptis
   Vodafone Panafon
   1-3 Tzavella Str. Chalandri
   15231 Athens
   Greece

   Email: Vasilios.Raptis@vodafone.com


   Kostas Kypris
   Vodafone Panafon
   1-3 Tzavella Str. Chalandri
   15231 Athens
   Greece

   Email: Kostas.Kypris@vodafone.com





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