An approach for secure multicasting in mobile IP networks

There is a considerable interest in the area of mobility with the advent of powerful portable computing devices such as laptops and other information appliances. These enable a user to access a service from anywhere at any time. Such nomadic computing poses several challenges in multicasting and security. We first consider a framework that has been proposed by Acharya et al. [Acharya, A., Bakre, A. and Badrinath, B. R. IP multicast extension for mobile internet working, Rutger DCS Technical Report, LCSR-TR_243.] for multicasting in mobile IP networks. In this paper, we extend this framework to support a secure multicasting service. We describe secure schemes for a mobile host to initiate, join and leave a multicast group. We also discuss the secure movement of mobile hosts in intra and inter campus environments.