An AAA architecture extension for providing differentiated services to mobile IP users

Differentiated services (DiffServ) are not yet fully adapted and integrated with mobile environments, especially when mobile IP is used as the mobility management protocol in the Internet. When a mobile node visits a foreign network and requests services based on service level agreements (SLAs), the DiffServ Internet service providers (ISPs) must care about how to charge the mobile user. In addition, SLAs have to be renegotiated between home/foreign links and their ISPs. Authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) procedures must be provided. This paper proposes a concept to combine the service location protocol and the mobile IP AAA based architecture. It is independent of the availability of a foreign agent (FA) and works for IPv4 or IPv6 in a uniform manner. The architecture supports mobile telephony over packet-based IP networks without requiring GSM-like mobility management and accounting schemes.