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Nortel VPN Router Configuration — Basic Features
Chapter 8
Configuring IPSec mobility and persistent mode
A large number of companies choose to secure access to their corporate networks
via VPN using the IPSec protocol. IPSec allows corporate employees, located
outside the corporate network to establish a secure tunnel to a private corporate
network through the Internet. With the growing popularity of wireless access, it is
important to have the ability to move freely among multiple networks without
losing a secure connection.
Currently, IPSec does not support this movement without tearing down and
reestablishing the VPN connection. Breaking and reestablishing a secure
connection could cause disruptions to applications running across the tunnel. For
example in Figure 29 on page 148, if a client has a wireless connection to the
Internet and has established a secure tunnel to the corporate private network via
access point 1 (AP1) and the client's connection to AP1 goes down for some
reason, the client roams to the access point 2 (AP2) and obtains a new IP address.
The VPN Router on the corporate network brings the secure IPSec connection
down because of a lack of response from client's original IP address and absence
of security associations (SA) for the new IP address. Thus, the client has to
reestablish a tunnel again via AP2. If the client had an open FTP session to the
server on the private side of the corporate network, this session would have been
closed.