The present invention relates to reducing the time required to provide an
IP address to a mobile node by pro-actively obtaining IP addresses, through the use of PANA-assisted pro-active
IP address acquisition, IKEv2-assisted proactive
IP address acquisition, or by pro-active IP address acquisition using DHCP only. Where a DHCP is used to pre-configure an IP address in an MPA framework, a PAA generates a plurality of Session-Ids, the plurality of Session-Ids is maintained as a
pool of Session-Ids, a Session-Id is retrieved from the
pool when the PAA sends a PANA-Auth-Request, and providing a pre-generated IP address to an MN reduces pre-
authentication time. Where a IKEv2-assisted pro-active IP address acquisition to pre-fetch IP addresses, is used to reduce the time required to provide an IP address to a MN an IP address is obtained from a CTN as part of a standard IKEv2 procedure. A co-located DHCP
relay agent is placed on the access
router or a DHCP
client for obtaining the IP address from a DHCP
server in a target network using standard DHCP, a PAA pre-generates a
pool of Session-Ids, the pool of Session-Ids is forwarded directly to a
Ipsec-GW. Where the time required to provide an IP address to a MN is reduced using only DHCP, direct DHCP communication between the mobile node and the DHCP
relay or DHCP
server in the CTN is enabled and the mobile node sends a
unicast DHCP message to the DHCP
relay agent or to the DHCP
server in the CTN, requesting an address, while using the address associated with the current
physical interface as the
source address of the request. In this
system a set of PANA Sessions-ids have been pre-generated.