Survey of IPv6 functional interoperability for mobile Internet

Four basic functional extensions are likely to enhance future IP networking for fixed and mobile applications: IP security (IPsec), mobile IP, quality-of-service (QoS) and IP multicast. These four functions are expected to be natively integrated into IP version 6 rather than implementing them as version 4 add-ons. As each functional extension increases complexity and may introduce interdependencies, the question arises whether the combined, simultaneous use of the functional extensions is possible, i.e. whether these extensions can always be applied in a seamless manner. Mobile networks are an important application area where IPv6 will be used (driven by 3G\´s IP multimedia subsystem IMS or the UMTS radio). It is important to identify issues and problems that arise from the combination and simultaneous use of IPv6 functions in the corresponding scenarios, in order to prevent negative experiences in large-scale rollouts of the technology. This article gives an overview on the "problem space" and identifies several functional areas where specific combinations of protocol mechanisms may lead to undesired behavior