The Wireless World Web

Technologies developed during the last decade have undoubtedly changed the face of the computing world. The Internet explosion and the progress in network operation and deployment have made the single, isolated computer completely obsolete. The device of tomorrow will be neither the portable computer we now have nor the mobile phone we use every day, but a combination of the two, fitting in a child's palm and perpetually connected to the whole world. The need for geographical freedom has prompted discussions about mobile protocols and a mobile Internet infrastructure. The mobile IP (Internet protocol) working group hosted by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has worked actively since 1996 on defining an alternative to mobile IP through a routing support allowing IP nodes to roam seamlessly among IP subnetworks while using either IPv4 or iPv6. The paper discusses the emergent technologies.