According to some of the preferred embodiments, a method for proactively
establishing a security association between a mobile node in a visiting network
and an authentication agent in another network to which the mobile node can
move includes: negotiating pre-authentication using a flag in a message
header that indicates whether the communication is for establishing a
pre-authentication security association; and one of the mobile node and the
authentication agent initiating pre-authentication by transmitting a message
with the flag set in its message header, and the other of the mobile node and
the authentication agent responding with the flag set in its message header
only if it supports the pre-authentication. Enable/disable pre-authentication
support. Default: disable.