System and Method for Providing a Distributed Virtual Mobility Agent

• US 20080192663A1
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Agrawal, Rajeev, Kalyanasundaram, Suresh, Bedekar, Anand S., Gopikanth, Venkat, Ram Ov, Vishnu
• Granted Patent: US 8,195,807 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/310
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/36 due to handover
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

An indication is received from the mobile station (114) indicating that the mobile station (114) is moving from an originating mobility agent (106) to a destination mobility agent (108). An identity of the destination mobility agent (108) is determined using the indication. Routing information is sent from the originating mobility agent (106) to the destination mobility agent (108) using the identity. Incoming data is routed to the mobile station (114) using the routing information.

Claims

1. A method for handling the connectivity for a mobile station comprising:

forming a generic agent advertisement at a mobility agent, the generic agent advertisement comprising at least one attribute not associated with the mobility agent; and

sending the generic agent advertisement to a mobile station.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the generic agent advertisement comprises forming a generic agent advertisement having a care-of-address that is not associated with the mobility agent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein forming a generic agent advertisement comprises forming a generic agent advertisement using a subnet prefix that is not associated with the mobility agent in the generic agent advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein forming a generic agent advertisement comprises forming a generic agent advertisement that is substantially identical to a previous agent advertisement sent to the mobile station by another mobility agent.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a generic agent advertisement to a mobile station comprises sending an advertisement to the mobile station that is substantially different than a previous advertisement sent to a different mobile station by the mobility agent.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the agent advertisement to the mobile station comprises sending the advertisement following a change in wireless connectivity of the mobile station and wherein the method further comprises one or more of exchanging information related to an agent advertisement previously sent to the mobile station by an originating agent, exchanging information related to at least one of a home address of the mobile station and an address of a network element and effecting a redirection of data destined for the mobile station from a network element to a destination mobility agent, and forwarding data destined for the mobile station from the originating mobility agent to the destination mobility agent.

7. A method of sending an advertisement to a mobile station comprising:

detecting a change in connectivity of the mobile station;

determining an identity of a mobility agent using the change; and

sending a generic agent advertisement to the mobile station.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein determining the identity comprises determining the identity of a mobility agent by using an address of an access point contained in a connectivity change message.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein detecting a change comprises receiving a Layer 2 (L2) trigger message.

10. A mobility agent comprising:

a receiver having an input;

a transmitter having an output;

a memory for storing a generic agent advertisement;

a controller coupled to the receiver, transmitter, and memory, the controller programmed to form a generic agent advertisement comprising at least one attribute not associated with the mobility agent at the output of the transmitter and to send the generic agent advertisement to a mobile station.

11. The mobility agent of claim 10 wherein the controller is further programmed to receive an indication of a change in wireless connectivity of the mobile station at the input of the receiver and to responsively determine an identity of another mobility agent based upon the indication.

12. The mobility agent of claim 11 wherein the controller is further programmed to exchange agent advertisement information with the another mobility agent at the output of the transmitter using the identity.

13. The mobility agent of claim 10 wherein the controller is further programmed to exchange routing information related to the mobile station with the another mobility agent and to effect a redirection of data destined to the mobile station from a network element.