What is foreign network? - Definition from Whatis.com

In the Mobile Internet Protocol (Mobile IP), a foreign network is any network other than the home network to which a mobile device may be connected.

Because standard Internet routing mechanisms deliver all traffic to a device's home network, it was once necessary to change a mobile device's IP address each time it connected through a foreign network. To overcome this drawback, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has developed the Mobile IP standard and several enhancements to it.

This was last updated in September 2002

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