141 International Journal of Communication Networks and Information Security (IJCNIS) Vol. 5, No. 3, December 2013 Design and Implementation of ID based MANET Auto-configuration Protocol S. Khalid 1 , A. Mahboob 2 1 Hamdard University Karachi, Pakistan 2 Dean Electrical DHA Suffa University Karachi, Pakistan shahrukh_khalid@hotmail.com, atharmahboob@yahoo.com Abstract: Auto-configuration protocols are used for assignment of unique IP addresses to nodes in Mobile ad hoc networks. Without the assignment of unique IP addresses, service provisioning between the nodes is not possible. Such protocols use various heuristics to ensure the uniqueness in IP address assignment; such aspects increase the overall complexity in MANET system design. Moreover the overriding role of IP address as an ID in Application layer and Locator in routing space is a bottleneck in future wireless network (FWN) design. Contemporary FWN research is focusing on ID/Locator split concept designs. In this paper we propose an ID/Locator based architecture for MANETs which also solves auto-configuration requirements for MANETs. Our proposed architecture is an adaptation from available ID/Locator split concepts for infrastructure oriented networks for usage in MANET context. The designed protocol uses identifiers for node identification, node discovery and traffic flow between end points. The protocol support provision for running contemporary IP oriented services. We have also verified various use cases of our proposed protocol through Linux based implementation. Keywords: Auto-configuration, Mobile adhoc networks, Robust header compression (ROHC), Private address map, MANET system design, TCP/IP stack, Linux 1. Introduction Mobile Ad hoc networks are a special category of networks exclusively classified on the basis of attributes like infrastructure-less-ness and Dynamic topology. Due to the dynamic nature and inherent infrastructure-less architecture, solutions developed for configuration and deployment of infrastructure oriented networks cannot be directly applied in MANETs. Present Internet architecture is dependent upon the usage of IP address as a host identifier in the Application Layer and as well as a locator in the routing space. Without the assignment of unique IP addresses to a host, provisioning of services between hosts is not possible. The uniqueness of IP addresses is well settled in infrastructure oriented networks; however, Auto-configuration in the context of MANET is not a trivial problem due to inherent dynamic characteristics of Mobile ad hoc networks. Infrastructure based IP address assignment solutions do not suffice the need for auto-configuration. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) [1] and its modified form for IPV6 addressing DHCPV6 [2], rely on the use of centralized servers for ensuring unique IP address assignment. Stateless auto-configuration mechanism for IPV6 [3], initially builds a link local address and sends this address using neighbor discovery protocol (NDP) to its one hop peers [4]. As relying on a single DHCP server for IP Address configuration in MANETs will cause a single point of failure in dynamic MANET topology whereas such a server implementation will require multi-hop communication to reach and function which is different from infrastructure based network configuration and not supported in the MANET context. Moreover, stateless IPV6 auto-configuration is also based on exchanging messages by one hop peers and multi-hop communication is not supported inherently. In order to ensure the assignment of unique IP addresses in MANETs rigorous studies have been conducted for design of Auto- configuration protocols. These protocols are based on varied nature of heuristics. L.Villalba [5], N. Wangi et.al [6] and H. Zhou et.al [7] have conducted rigorous reviews in the field of Address auto-configuration and elaborated large number of such protocols. In order to emphasize the need of such mechanisms consider Figure 1. which illustrates dynamic behavior and peculiar requirement of address assignment in MANET. Consider the blue network of Figure 1. in which unique addresses are required to be assigned. As all nodes are not at one hop distance so regular infrastructure based protocols will not work. Suppose if some protocol is able to assign unique addresses to the nodes in question then how the situation will be managed if some nodes leave the MANET. Can the already configured addresses to the nodes be assigned to any other incoming nodes? Moreover, how the mechanism will handle the reappearance of nodes. Now consider two MANET clouds in blue and yellow illustrated in Figure 1, in which nodes have been assigned distinct IP addresses through some mechanism. If a node in Figure 1. MANETs dynamic topology