Wireless services data network translating mac address to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) address
First Claim
1. A method of processing communications received from a wireless station for delivery to an intended destination via an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network comprising a plurality of base stations each serving a plurality of wireless stations within a respective coverage area, said communications being received by a base station serving the coverage area in which the wireless station is currently located, said method comprising the steps ofreceiving at a first one of the base stations a datagram originated by one of the wireless stations and addressed to a second one of the wireless stations not within the respective coverage area,translating the address into an identifier identifying a virtual circuit connection that may be used to transport the datagram to the second wireless station over the ATM network,dividing the datagram into a plurality of segments, and prepending an ATM header containing at least the identity of said virtual circuit connection and said address to each of the segments to form respective ATM cells, andtransmitting each of the cells over the virtual circuit connection.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A wireless services data network supporting the mobility of an Internet Protocol (IP) over ATM networks is implemented such that a joint ATM-layer hand-off and MAC-layer hand-off are respectively used to handle in-session and inter-session mobility. In this way the effect of mobility is localized and transparent to higher-layer protocols. Also, different functions, including the so-called Address Resolution protocol, location of a mobile, and ATM connection, are combined to reduce front-end delay for connectionless packet transmissions in connection-oriented ATM networks.
212 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method of processing communications received from a wireless station for delivery to an intended destination via an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network comprising a plurality of base stations each serving a plurality of wireless stations within a respective coverage area, said communications being received by a base station serving the coverage area in which the wireless station is currently located, said method comprising the steps of
receiving at a first one of the base stations a datagram originated by one of the wireless stations and addressed to a second one of the wireless stations not within the respective coverage area, translating the address into an identifier identifying a virtual circuit connection that may be used to transport the datagram to the second wireless station over the ATM network, dividing the datagram into a plurality of segments, and prepending an ATM header containing at least the identity of said virtual circuit connection and said address to each of the segments to form respective ATM cells, and transmitting each of the cells over the virtual circuit connection.
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11. A method of operating a communications system comprising a plurality of access processors each serving a plurality of wireless communications units, in which each of the wireless communications units is assigned a unique MAC address and a unique Internet Protocol (IP) network address, said method comprising the steps of
receiving at a first one of the access processors a message originated by a first one of the wireless communications units and containing only the IP address of a second one of the wireless communications units as a destination address; -
forming an address resolution message containing at least the IP address of the second wireless communications unit and broadcasting the resolution message over the communications system; receiving from a second one of the access processors a message identifying at least (a) an association between the second access processor and the second wireless communications units;
(b) a virtual connection provisioned within a virtual path provisioned from the first access processor to the second wireless communications unit; and
(c) the unique MAC address assigned to the second wireless communications unit; andinserting the MAC address in the message received from the first wireless communications unit and sending the resulting message to the first access processor.
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Specification