A Survey of Mobile VPN Technologies

Virtual private network (VPN) is the traditional approach for an end-to-end secure connection between two endpoints. Most existing VPN solutions are intended for wired networks with high-speed, highly reliable connections. In a mobile environment, these network connections are less reliable. This affects traditional VPN performance resulting in frequent application failure, data loss, and reduced productivity. Mobile VPN bridges the gap between what users and applications expect from a wired network and the realities of mobile computing. In this survey, we provide a taxonomy of VPN designs, present a study of existing mobile VPN solutions, and highlight the advantages and disadvantages and applications of these methods.