Method for providing home agent geographic redundancy

• US 20070116019A1
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramankutty, Rajesh, Drumheller, Clarence, Cheever, Greg, Puthiyandyil, Sanil, Vasamsetti, Satya (Satish)
• Granted Patent: US 8,437,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing redundancy in servicing packet data communications within wireless mobile data networks are disclosed. More particularly, the method and system for provide a redundant Home Agent with the ability to assume the role of the primary Home Agent in the event of a primary Home Agent network, software, or other failure. The redundancy allows Home Agent services to remain functional in the case of a failure of one of the Home Agents in the redundant group, which may be composed of one or more Home Agents. The Home Agents can be located in geographically separate areas to ensure that a network outage event in one geographic area does not cause subscriber services to be impacted.

Claims

1. A method for providing Home Agent redundancy comprising:

initializing a first Home Agent to an Active state;

initializing a second Home Agent to a Standby state; and

initiating a switchover from the first Home Agent to the second Home Agent, wherein the second Home Agent uses the first Home Agent'"'"'s identification information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is IP pool and loopback interface routes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the switchover is due to a failure associated with the first Home Agent.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising sending backup information to the Home Agent in a Standby state for use in a switchover.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending backup information to the Home Agent in a Standby state on a periodic basis.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing one or more routing attributes when more than one Home Agent is in the init state; and

initializing a Home Agent to an Active state based on the routing attributes.

7. A system for providing Home Agent redundancy comprising:

a first Home Agent in an Active state;

a second Home Agent in a Standby state coupled to the first Home Agent; and

a communication link coupling the first Home Agent to the second Home Agent,

wherein the second Home Agent switches to an Active state using the first Home Agent'"'"'s identification information.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the identification information includes IP pool and loopback interface routes.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the switch is due to a failure associated with the first Home Agent.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first Home Agent transitions to Standby after coming back online from a failure.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the first Home Agent sends backup information to the second Home Agent for use in a switchover.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first Home Agent sends backup information to the second Home Agent is on a periodic basis.

13. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a first Home Agent in an Init state; and

a second Home Agent in an Init state, wherein the first Home Agent switches to an Active state based on comparison one or more routing attributes.

14. A system for providing Home Agent redundancy comprising:

means for initializing a first Home Agent to an Active state;

means for initializing a second Home Agent to a Standby state; and

means for initiating a switchover from the first Home Agent to the second Home Agent, wherein the second Home Agent uses the first Home Agent'"'"'s identification information.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the identification information includes IP pool and loopback interface routes.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the switchover is due to a failure associated with the first Home Agent.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for causing the first Home Agent to transition to a Standby state after coming back online from a failure.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for sending backup information to the second Home Agent for use in a switchover.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for sending backup information to the second Home Agent on a periodic basis.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for comparing one or more routing attributes when more than one Home Agent is in the Init state; and

means for activating a Home Agent based on the routing attributes.