Mobile IPv4 Regional Registration

Using Mobile IP, a mobile node registers with its home agent each time it changes care-of address. This document describes a new kind of "regional registrations", i.e., registrations local to the visited domain. The regional registrations are performed via a new network entity called a Gateway Foreign Agent (GFA) and introduce a layer of hierarchy in the visited domain. Regional registrations reduce the number of signaling messages to the home network, and reduce the signaling delay when a mobile node moves from one foreign agent to another within the same visited domain. This document is an optional extension to the Mobile IPv4 protocol.