Mobility communications system

• US 20040203752A1
• Filed: 11/18/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Corporation
• Original Assignee: Toshiba America Information Systems Incorporated (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Wojaczynski, David, Baba, Shinichi, Astarabadi, Shaun, McCloskey, Andrew, Swonk, Glenn
• Application Number:
  US10/299,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20040203752A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/432.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/327 in the session layer [OSI layer 5]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/56 for VoIP communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/63 based on the content carried by the session initiation protocol [SIP] messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8292 Charging for signaling or unsuccessful connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/202 VoIP; Packet switched telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method of wireless communication includes establishing a wireless connection with a first access point via a wireless protocol in a first sub-network by a wireless electronic device. A network address is assigned to the wireless electronic device having a telephone address. The wireless electronic device roams from the first sub-network to a second sub-network. The wireless connection is automatically disconnected with the first access point, and the wireless connection is seamlessly established with a second access point in the second sub-network. A new network address is assigned to the wireless electronic device at the second sub-network. Alternatively the network address is still assigned to the wireless electronic device at the second sub-network.

Claims

1. A mobility communications system, comprising:

a local area network (LAN) backbone;

a private branch exchange (PBX) system in communication with a public switched telephone network (PSTN);

a gateway in communication with the PBX system and the LAN backbone;

a mobility communications system (MCS) server in communication with the LAN backbone;

a first sub-network, including

a first node server in communication with the LAN backbone, and

at least one first access point in communication with the first node server;

a second sub-network, including

a second node server in communication with the LAN backbone, and

at least one second access point in communication with the second node server; and

a wireless electronic device having a wireless connection with the at least one first access point of the first sub-network via a wireless protocol, wherein when the wireless electronic device roams from the first sub-network into the second sub-network, the wireless connection with the first access point is automatically disconnected and seamlessly re-connected with the at least one second access point of the second sub-network.

2. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the gateway provides real-time two-way communications between a PBX protocol of the PBX system and an Internet Protocol (IP) of the LAN backbone.

3. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based wireless telephone handset, and a portable computer.

4. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless electronic device utilizes Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) for data communication and Session Initiated Protocol-Mobile (SIP-M) for voice communication.

5. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless electronic device is adapted to simultaneously communicate wirelessly data and voice.

6. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the MCS server assigns a network address to the wireless electronic device when the wireless electronic device is in the first sub-network, and the MCS server assigns a new network address to the wireless electronic device when the wireless electronic device roams from the first sub-network to the second sub-network.

7. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the MCS server assigns a network address to the wireless electronic device when the wireless electronic device is in the first sub-network;

and the MCS server assigns the network address to the wireless electronic device when the wireless electronic device roams from the first sub-network to the second sub-network.

8. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless electronic device includes a telephone address and a corresponding network address.

9. The mobility communications system according to claim 8, wherein the network address is an alias address.

10. The mobility communications system according to claim 9, wherein the alias address is a uniform resource locator (URL) address.

11. The mobility communications system according to claim 8, wherein the network address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

12. The mobility communications system according to claim 8, wherein the telephone address is a PBX extension telephone number.

13. The mobility communication system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of RADIUS and DIAMETER extensions are utilized for secure communication while roaming

14. The mobility communication system according to claim 1, wherein the MCS server further includes simple network management protocol (SNMP) management system that performs user management, server management, node server management, call feature management, enterprise integration configuration, policy definition and enforcement, event monitoring, and general and specific reporting.

15. The mobility communication system according to claim 14, wherein the SNMP management system has a web interface.

16. The mobility communication system according to claim 14, wherein the SNMP management system is accessed from other SNMP-based tools.

17. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the MCS server, the first node server, the second node server, and the wireless communications device each include a Quality of Service (QOS) module to ensure that data users utilize a specific bandwidth.

18. The mobility communications system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communications device includes advanced call features, including call hold, transfer, forward, forward to voice mail, conference call, and intra-enterprise call receiving/transmitting

19. A mobility communications system, comprising:

at least one first access point in a first sub-network adapted to communicate wirelessly via a wireless protocol;

a mobility communications system (MCS) node server in communication with the first access point;

a wireless electronic device having a wireless connection with the at least one first access point via the wireless protocol, the wireless electronic device including a telephone address and a network address;

a mobility communications system (MCS) server in communication with the at least one first access point and a public switched telephone network (PSTN), the MCS server including a table of the network address of the wireless electronic device corresponding to the telephone address of the wireless electronic device,

wherein when the wireless electronic device roams from the first sub-network to a second sub-network, the wireless connection with the at least one first access point is automatically disconnected and seamlessly re-connected with at least one second access point of the second sub-network.

20. The mobility communications system of claim 19, wherein the wireless electronic device is assigned a new network address at the second sub-network.

21. The mobility communications system of claim 19, wherein the wireless electronic device is assigned the network address at the second sub-network.

22. The mobility communications system of claim 19, wherein the wireless connection with the at least one first access point is automatically disconnected and seamlessly re-connected with the at least one second access point of the second sub-network based on variable business rules, including as signal strength, quality of service, and cost.

23. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the MCS server assigns the network address to the wireless electronic device when the wireless electronic device is in the first sub-network, and the MCS server assigns the new network address to the wireless electronic device when the wireless electronic device roam from the first sub-network to the second sub-network.

24. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the network address is an alias address.

25. The mobility communications system according to claim 24, wherein the alias address is a uniform resource locator (URL) address.

26. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the network address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

27. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the wireless electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based wireless telephone handset, and a portable computer.

28. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the telephone address is a private branch exchange (PBX) extension telephone number.

29. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the wireless electronic device utilizes Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) for data communication and Session Initiated Protocol-Mobile (SIP-M) for voice communication.

30. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, wherein the wireless electronic device utilizes Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) for both data communications and for voice communications.

31. The mobility communications system according to claim 19 wherein the wireless electronic device is adapted to simultaneously communicate wirelessly data and voice.

32. The mobility communications system according to claim 19, further including a private branch exchange (PBX) system in communication with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and the mobility communications system (MCS) server.

33. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

establishing a wireless connection with at least one first access point via a wireless protocol in a first sub-network by a wireless electronic device;

assigning a network address to the wireless electronic device having a telephone address;

roaming from the first sub-network to a second sub-network;

disconnecting automatically the wireless connection with the at least one first access point;

establishing seamlessly the wireless connection with at least one second access point in the second sub-network; and

assigning a new network address to the wireless electronic device at the second sub-network.

34. The method according to claim 33, further including updating a table having the network address of the wireless electronic device with the new network address corresponding to the telephone address of the wireless electronic device.

35. The method according to claim 33, wherein the wireless electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based wireless telephone handset, and a portable computer.

36. The method according to claim 33, further including utilizing Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) for data communication and utilizing Session Initiated Protocol-Mobile (SIP-M) for voice communication.

37. The method according to claim 33, wherein the telephone address is a private branch exchange (PBX) extension telephone number.

38. The method according to claim 33, further including communicating simultaneously voice data and non-voice data over the wireless connection.

39. A program code storage device, comprising:

a machine-readable storage medium; and

machine-readable program code, stored on the machine-readable storage medium, having instructions to

establish a wireless connection with at least one first access point via a wireless protocol in a first sub-network;

receive a network address corresponding to a telephone address;

disconnect automatically the wireless connection with the at least one first access point when a wireless electronic device roams from the first sub-network to a second sub-network;

establish seamlessly the wireless connection with the at least one second access point in the second sub-network; and

receive a new network address at the second sub-network.

40. The program code storage device according to claim 39, wherein the machine-readable program code further includes instructions to update a table having the network address with the new network address corresponding to the telephone address.

41. The program code storage device according to claim 39, wherein the wireless electronic device is selected from the group consisting of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based wireless telephone handset, and a portable computer.

42. The program code storage device according to claim 39, wherein the machine-readable program code further includes instructions to utilize Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) for data communication and to utilize Session Initiated Protocol-Mobile (SIP-M) for voice communication.

43. The program code storage device according to claim 39, wherein the telephone address is a private branch exchange (PBX) extension telephone number.

44. The program code storage device according to claim 39, wherein the machine-readable program code further includes instructions to communicate simultaneously voice data and non-voice data over the wireless connection.