Method and apparatus for seamless mobility between different access technologies
First Claim
1. A method of buffering and forwarding packets to support a hand off of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, the hand off involving a first entity having an IP stack and a second entity having an IP stack, including:
- (a) receiving at a first entity having an IP stack, via a first access technology, a first message from a mobile terminal to stop sending and begin buffering session packets exchanged with a server;
acknowledging the first message;
(b) receiving at a second entity having an IP stack, via a second access technology, the second access technology utilizing a different physical layer than the first access technology, a second message from the mobile terminal directing the second entity to set up a new route between the mobile terminal and the server via the second entity wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
acknowledging the second message;
signaling from the second entity to the first entity to start forwarding the buffered packets;
(c) receiving at the second entity the forwarded buffered packets;
relaying the forwarded buffered packets to the mobile terminal;
communicating to the server the new route; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the new route.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention includes a method and device to support hand off of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, while continuing the session. One aspect of the invention is a method involving a first entity having an IP stack and a second entity having an IP stack. These entities support a hand off from one access technology to another, wherein the different access technologies are differentiated by a characteristic such as their physical layer. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
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Citations
82 Claims
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1. A method of buffering and forwarding packets to support a hand off of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, the hand off involving a first entity having an IP stack and a second entity having an IP stack, including:
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(a) receiving at a first entity having an IP stack, via a first access technology, a first message from a mobile terminal to stop sending and begin buffering session packets exchanged with a server;
acknowledging the first message;
(b) receiving at a second entity having an IP stack, via a second access technology, the second access technology utilizing a different physical layer than the first access technology, a second message from the mobile terminal directing the second entity to set up a new route between the mobile terminal and the server via the second entity wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
acknowledging the second message;
signaling from the second entity to the first entity to start forwarding the buffered packets;
(c) receiving at the second entity the forwarded buffered packets;
relaying the forwarded buffered packets to the mobile terminal;
communicating to the server the new route; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the new route. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A method of buffering and forwarding packets to support a hand off of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, the hand off involving a first entity having an IP stack and a second entity having an IP stack, including:
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(a) receiving at a first entity having an IP stack, via a first access technology, a first message from a mobile terminal to stop-sending and begin buffering session packets exchanged with a server;
acknowledging the first message;
(b) receiving at a second entity having an IP stack a second message to set up a new route from the mobile terminal to the server via a second access technology, the second access technology utilizing a different physical layer than the first access technology;
signaling from the second entity to the first entity to start forwarding the buffered packets;
forwarding the buffered packets from the first entity to the second entity and on to the mobile terminal wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
communicating to the server the new route; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the second access technology. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A method of buffering and forwarding packets to support a hand off involving a first entity having an IP stack and a second entity having an IP stack, the first entity supporting communication with a mobile terminal via a first access technology, the second entity supporting communication with the mobile terminal via a second access technology and the mobile terminal engaged in a session with a server via the first access technology, the method including:
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receiving at the second entity a message to set up a new route from the mobile terminal to a server via the second access technology, the second access technology utilizing a different physical layer than the first access technology wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
communicating to the server the new route;
signaling from the second entity to the first entity to forward any buffered packets;
forwarding the buffered packets from the first entity to the second entity and on to the mobile terminal; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the second access technology. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75)
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76. A second entity having an IP stack adapted to accepting from a first entity having an IP stack a hand off between a first access technology and a second access technology of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, the second entity including:
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a processor, having memory and resources, including an IP stack;
one or more communication ports, coupled with the processor, in communication with the first entity and in communication with the mobile terminal;
program storage memory, coupled with the processor, containing one or more programs adapted to;
receiving at a second entity having an IP stack, via a second access technology, the second access technology utilizing a different physical layer than the first access technology, a second message from the mobile terminal directing the second entity to set up a new route between the mobile terminal and the server via the second entity wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
acknowledging the second message;
signaling from the second entity to the first entity to start forwarding the buffered packets;
receiving at the second entity the forwarding buffered packets;
relaying the forwarded buffered packets to the mobile terminal wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
communicating to the server the new route; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the new route.
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77. A first entity having an IP stack adapted to adapting to giving a second entity having an IP stack a hand off between a first access technology and a second access technology of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, first entity including:
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a processor, having memory and resources, including an IP stack;
one or more communication ports, coupled with the processor, in communication with the first entity and in communication with the mobile terminal;
program storage memory, coupled with the processor, containing one or more programs adapted to;
receiving at a first entity having an IP stack a first access technology a first message from a mobile terminal to stop sending and begin buffering session packets exchanged with a server;
acknowledging the first message;
receiving from the second entity a signal to start forwarding the buffered packets;
forwarding the buffered packets from the first entity to the second entity, to be forwarded on to the mobile terminal;
communicating to the server a care-of-address for routing via the second access technology; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the second access technology wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection.
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78. A second entity having an IP stack adapted to accepting from a first entity having an IP stack a hand off between a first access technology and a second access technology of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, including:
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a processor, having memory and resources, including an IP stack;
one or more communication ports, coupled with the processor, in communication with the first entity and in communication with the mobile terminal;
program storage memory, coupled with the processor, containing one or more programs adapted to;
receiving at the second entity a message to set up a new route from the mobile terminal to the server via the second access technology, the second access technology utilizing a different physical layer than the first access technology wherein one of the first or second access technologies uses a WLAN connection and the other of the first or second access technologies uses a WWAN connection;
communicating to the server the new route;
signaling from the second entity to the first entity to forward any buffered packets;
forwarding the buffered packets from the first entity to the second entity and on to the mobile terminal; and
continuing the session between the mobile terminal and the server via the second access technology.
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79. An entity having an IP stack, adapted to cooperate with an additional entity having an IP stack in a hand off of a session between a mobile terminal and a server, the entity including:
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a processor, having memory and resources, the resources including an IP stack;
one or more communication ports, coupled with the processor and in communication with the mobile terminal, the server and the additional entity;
program storage memory, coupled with the processor, containing one or more programs, including logic segments to (1) forward packets in the session between the mobile terminal and the server;
(2) stop forwarding the packets in the session and buffer the packets received from the server;
(3) forward the buffered packets to the additional entity;
(4) wait for a message to take over the session between the mobile terminal and the server; and
(5) communicate an address of the entity to the server with a binding update directive;
signal the additional entity to begin forwarding the buffered packets; and
forward the buffered packets received from the additional entity to the mobile terminal;
wherein the one or more programs transition among logic segments, including;
transitioning from logic segment (1) to logic segment (2) upon receiving a first message type from the mobile terminal;
transitioning from logic segment (2) to logic segment (3) upon receiving a second message type from the additional entity;
transitioning from logic segment (3) to logic segment (4) upon completing the forwarding of buffered packets to the additional entity;
transitioning from logic segment (4) to logic segment (1) upon receiving an initial message type from the mobile terminal;
transitioning from logic segment (4) to logic segment (5) upon receiving a third message type from the additional entity;
transitioning from logic segment (5) to logic segment (1) upon receiving a fourth message type from the additional entity indicating completion of forwarding of the buffered packets. - View Dependent Claims (80, 81, 82)
logic segment (5) further includes temporarily buffering any packets received from the server while forwarding the buffered packets received from the additional entity to the mobile terminal; and
transitioning from logic segment (5) to logic segment (1) further includes forwarding to the mobile terminal the temporarily buffered packets received from the server upon receiving the fourth message type from the additional entity.
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Specification