Fielding mobile IP on joint stars: challenges and solutions enabling IP connectivity via concurrent use of legacy communications links

We review the design of the multipath-enabled mobile IP-based dynamic routing and quality-of-service (QoS) management capability developed under the Air Force's Information for Global Reach (IFGR) Program. The dynamic routing and QoS management goals for IFGR are making multiple disparate communications resources appear as a single channel (i.e., inverse multiplexing across multiple data radios) to provide transparent air-to-ground IP connectivity to multiple IP hosts onboard aircraft (i.e., providing mobile subnet support). This paper describes the various network layer components that collectively enabled this service, and in particular the extensions made to mobile IP, which have resulted in several successful field evaluations on joint STARS.