MIGRATION OF NETWORK CONNECTION UNDER MOBILITY

• US 20140280768A1
• Filed: 08/22/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Calo, Seraphin B., Dilmaghani, Raheleh B., Ko, Bong Jun, Lee, Kang-Won, Pappas, Vasileios, Raghavendra, Ramya, Song, Yang, Verma, Dinesh C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,591,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols

Abstract

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of migration (e.g., seamless migration) of a network connection under mobility (e.g., host mobility). In various examples, migration (e.g., seamless migration) of a network connection under mobility (e.g., host mobility) may be implemented in the form of methods and/or algorithms.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computer system for migrating communication between a client device and a first server to communication between the client device and a second server, the method comprising:

communicating between the client device and the first server via a first communication session, wherein the first communication session has associated therewith at least one communication state;

determining, by the client device, the at least one communication state;

sending by the client device, to the second server, an identification of the at least one communication state that was determined by the client device; and

communicating between the client device and the second server via a second communication session, wherein the second communication session is based at least in part upon the identification of the at least one communication state that was sent by the client device to the second server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating between the client device and the first server via the first communication session is initiated by the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating between the client device and the second server via the second communication session is initiated by the client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the communicating between the client device and the second server via the second communication session comprises, prior to the second server responding to the client device initiating the second communication session, the second server establishing a second communication state associated with the second communication session to be substantially identical to the first communication state associated with the first communication session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one communication state is a transmission state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication session has associated therewith at least a first protocol, wherein the second communication session has associated therewith at least a second protocol, and wherein the first protocol and the second protocol are the same.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the first protocol and the second protocol is a network layer protocol.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the network layer protocol is a TCP protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first communication session and the second communication session is an application level session.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending by the client device, to the second server, the identification of the at least one communication state that was determined by the client device further comprises asynchronously repeatedly sending by the client device to the second server, in a series of packets, the identification of the at least one communication state that was determined by the client device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining by the client device, at each of a plurality of points in time, the at least one communication state;

sending by the client device, to the second server, the identification of the at least one communication state that was determined by the client device at a most recent one of the points in time.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is a mobile device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the mobile device communicates with the first server via a first mobile phone cell site; and

the mobile device communicates with the second server via a second mobile phone cell site.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is migrated from between the client device and the first server to between the client device and the second server as a result of at least one of:

(a) load-balancing; and

(b) a virtual machine process.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the client device, when the communication between the client device and the first server via the first communication session migrates to the communication between the client device and the second server via the second communication session;

wherein the client device sends, to the second server, the identification of the at least one communication state that was determined by the client device after the client device determines that the communication between the client device and the first server via the first communication session has migrated to the communication between the client device and the second server via the second communication session.