Mobility management solutions lie at the center of the wireless Internet and enable mobile devices to partake in IP networks anytime and anywhere. The IETF Distributed Mobility Management (DMM) working group (WG) specifies solutions for IP networks so that traffic between mobile and correspondent nodes can take an optimal route. DMM solutions aim for transparency above the IP layer, including maintenance of active transport level sessions when mobile hosts or mobile networks change their point of attachment to the Internet. Wireless network deployments have traditionally relied on hierarchical schemes that often lead to centralized deployment models, where a small number of mobility anchors manage both mobility and reachability for a mobile node. The DMM WG will consider the latest developments in mobile networking research and operational practice (i.e. flattening network architectures, the impact of virtualization, new deployment needs as wireless access technologies evolve in the coming years) and will describe how distributed mobility management addresses the new needs in this area better than previously standardized solutions. A topic of particular focus will be mobility anchoring in this new context, and the DMM working group is chartered to work on maintenance-oriented extensions of the Mobile IPv6 protocol family (RFC 5213, RFC 5844, RFC 5555, RFC 5568, and RFC 6275) as well as new approaches which capitalize on other protocols specified by the IETF. For example, mobility management in a limited area, such as within an autonomous system, is not strictly limited to mentioned IP mobility protocols but can be any existing or a new protocol solution enabling the movement of a mobile node such as routing protocols. When extending protocols that are not based on Mobile IP, DMM solutions will have to be reviewed by the corresponding WGs. IPv6 is assumed to be present in both the mobile host/router and the access networks. DMM solutions are primarily targeted at IPv6 deployments and are not required to support IPv4, in particular for the case where private IPv4 addresses and/or NATs are used. DMM solutions must maintain backward compatibility: If the network or the mobile host/router does not support the distributed mobility management protocol that should not prevent the mobile host/router gaining basic access (i.e., nomadic) to the network. Contrary to earlier IP mobility protocols, mobility management signaling paths and end-user traffic forwarding paths may differ. Further, mobility-related functions may be located in separate network nodes. DMM solutions should not distinguish between physical or virtualized networking functions. Whenever applicable, clarifications and additional features/capabilities for specific networking function deployment models, e.g. in virtualized environments, are in-scope and encouraged. Solutions may also specify the selection between the care-of addresses and home address(es)/prefix(es) for different application use cases. The working group will produce one or more documents on the following work item topics. o Distributed mobility management deployment models and scenarios: describe the target high-level network architectures and deployment models where distributed mobility management protocol solutions would apply. o Enhanced mobility anchoring: define protocol solutions for a gateway and mobility anchor assignment and mid-session mobility anchor switching that go beyond what has been specified, for example, in RFC 6097, 6463, and 5142. Traffic steering associated with the anchor switch is also in-scope if deemed appropriate. o Forwarding path and signaling management: the function that handles mobility management signaling interacts with the DMM network elements for managing the forwarding state associated with a mobile node's IP traffic. These two functions may or may not be collocated. Furthermore, the forwarding state may also be distributed into multiple network elements instead of a single network element (e.g., anchor). Protocol extensions or new protocols will be specified to allow the above mentioned forwarding path and signalling management. o Exposing mobility state to mobile nodes and network nodes: define solutions that allow, for example, mobile nodes to select either a care-of address or a home address depending on an application' mobility needs. In order to enable this functionality, the network-side control functions and other networking nodes must also be able to exchange appropriate control information, as well as to the mobile nodes and their applications. The working group may decide to extend the current milestones based on the new information and knowledge gained during working on other documents listed in the initial milestones. Possible new documents and milestones must still fit into the overall DMM charter scope as outlined above.