Method and system for service flow mobility in a wireless network

• US 7,369,564 B1
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 05/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yang, Daotang, Miernik, Jerzy
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham; Chi
• Assistant Examiner(s): MEW, KEVIN D
• Application Number:
  US09/895,993
• Time in Patent Office: 2,503 Days
• Field of Search: 370/412, 370/414, 370/428, 370/429, 370/413, 370/415, 370/417
• US Class Current: 370/412
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2458 Modification of priorities while in transit
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/06 Reselecting a communication resource in the serving access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]

Abstract

Traffic for a mobile device is queued in one of a plurality of class of service queues for the mobile device. An association of the class of service queues for the mobile device is altered from a first sector to a second sector in response to at least a sector change for the mobile device. Post-sector-change packets for the mobile device are held until pre-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues.

Claims

1. A method for service flow mobility, comprising:

queuing traffic for a mobile device in one of a plurality of class of service queues in a gateway for the mobile device;

altering an association of the class of service queues for the mobile device from a first sector to a second sector in response to at least a sector change for the mobile device, wherein altering an association of the class of service queues for the mobile device from a first sector to a second sector comprises;

deleting an object link corresponding to the mobile device from a first sector object list in the gateway; and

creating an object link corresponding to the mobile device in a second sector object list in the gateway; and

holding post-sector-change packets for the mobile device temporarily in a buffer in the gateway until pre-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues in the gateway.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising reformatting the class of service queues by altering a type of class of service queues for the mobile device based on admission criteria of the second sector.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the admission criteria comprises classes of service available in the second sector.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising after reformatting the class of service queues, placing the held post-sector-change packets in the class of service queues.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the post-sector-change packets are identified by a label.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sector change comprises a primary sector change.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising scheduling traffic out of the class of service queues for delivery to the mobile device through a corresponding class of service of the primary sector for the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-sector-change packets comprise packets that have already been queued at a time of the sector change.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein packet labels are used to identify pre-sector-change packets and post-sector-change packets.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to at least a further sector change, prior to emptying the pre-sector-change packets from the class of service queues, holding further post-sector-change packets for the mobile device until the pre-sector-change and the post-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues.

45. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the buffer in the gateway to temporarily hold the post-sector-change packets; and

placing the post-sector-change packets in the buffer according to a label that identifies the post-sector-change packets.

11. A system for service flow mobility, comprising:

means for queuing traffic for a mobile device in one of a plurality of class of service queues in a gateway for the mobile device;

means for altering an association of the class of service queues for the mobile device from a first sector to a second sector in response to at least a sector change for the mobile device, wherein means for altering an association of the class of service queues for the mobile device from a first sector to a second sector comprises;

means for deleting an object link corresponding to the mobile device from a first sector object list in the gateway; and

means for creating an object link corresponding to the mobile device in a second sector object list in the gateway; and

means for holding post-sector-change packets for the mobile device temporarily in a buffer in the gateway until pre-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues in the gateway.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising means for after emptying the class of service queues reformatting the class of service queues by altering a type of class of service queues for the mobile device based on admission criteria of the second sector.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the admission criteria comprises classes of service available in the second sector.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising means for after reformatting the class of service queues, placing the held post-sector-change packets in the class of service queues.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein a destination of the packets is identified using labels.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the sector change comprises a primary sector change.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for scheduling traffic out of the class of service queues for delivery to the mobile device through a corresponding class of service of the primary sector for the mobile device.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the pre-sector-change packets comprise packets that have already been queued at a time of the sector change.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein labels are used to identify pre-sector-change packets and post-sector-change packets.

20. The system of claim 11, further comprising means to, in response to at least a further sector change, prior to emptying the pre-sector-change packets from the class of service queues, holding further post-sector-change packets for the mobile device until the pre-sector-change and the post-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues.

21. A system for service flow mobility comprising logic encoded in media, the logic operable to:

queue traffic for a mobile device in one of a plurality of class of service queues in a gateway for the mobile device;

alter an association of the class of service queues for the mobile device from a first sector to a second sector in response to at least a sector change for the mobile device, wherein altering an association of the class of service queues for the mobile device from a first sector to a second sector comprises;

deleting an object link corresponding to the mobile device from a first sector object list in the gateway, and

creating an object link corresponding to the mobile device in a second sector object list in the gateway; and

hold post-sector-change packets for the mobile device temporarily in a buffer in the gateway until pre-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues in the gateway.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising logic operable to, after emptying the class of service queues, reformat the class of service queues by altering a type of class of service queues for the mobile device based on admission criteria of the second sector.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the admission criteria comprises classes of service available in the second sector.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising after reformatting the class of service queues, logic operable to place the held post-sector-change packets in the class of service queues.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein a destination of the packets is identified using labels.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the sector change comprises a primary sector change.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising logic operable to schedule traffic out of the class of service queues for delivery to the mobile device through a corresponding class of service of the primary sector for the mobile device.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the pre-sector-change packets comprise packets that have already been queued at a time of the sector change.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein labels are used to identify pre-sector-change packets and post-sector-change packets.

30. The system of claim 21, further comprising logic operable to, in response to at least a further sector change, prior to emptying the pre-sector-change packets from the class of service queues, hold further post-sector-change packets for the mobile device until the pre-sector-change and the post-sector-change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues.

31. A method for service flow mobility that maintains packet order comprising:

receiving at a gateway sending data to a mobile device a sector change notification indicating that a primary sector of the mobile device has changed from a first sector to a second sector;

generating labels for incoming data packets destined for the mobile device received after the sector change notification, the labels associated with the second sector;

applying the labels to the incoming data packets;

buffering the incoming data packets in a buffer list;

deleting object links corresponding to the mobile device from a first sector-specific object list in the gateway, wherein the first sector-specific object list corresponds to the first sector;

creating object links corresponding to the mobile device in a second sector-specific object list in the gateway, wherein the second sector-specific object list corresponds to the second primary sector; and

queuing data packets from the buffer list when an existing queue of data packets destined for the mobile device have been transmitted.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the flow of the data packets is divided into a plurality of microflows.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the microflows correspond to classes of service.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein data packets are queued according to class of service.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the existing queue of data packets corresponds to the classes of service available in the first sector.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein the queuing of data packets from the buffer list corresponds to the classes of service available in the second sector.

37. The method of claim 31, further comprising, in response to at least a further section change, prior to emptying the pre-sector change packets for the class of service queues, holding further post-sector change packets for the mobile device until the pre-sector change and the post-sector change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues.

38. A system for service flow mobility that maintains packet order comprising:

means for receiving at a gateway sending data to a mobile device a notification that a primary sector of the mobile device has changed;

means for deleting object links corresponding to the mobile device from a sector-specific object list in the gateway, wherein the sector-specific object list corresponds to an old primary sector;

means for creating object links corresponding to the mobile device in another sector-specific object list in the gateway, wherein the other sector-specific object list corresponds to a new primary sector;

means for changing labels of incoming data packets destined for the mobile device;

means for buffering the incoming data packets in a buffer list;

means for queuing and transmitting data packets from the buffer list when an existing queue of data packets destined for the mobile device have been transmitted.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the flow of the data packets is divided into a plurality of microflows.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the microflows correspond to classes of service.

41. The system of claim 38, wherein data packets are queued according to class of service.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the existing queue of data packets corresponds to the classes of service available in the old sector.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the queuing of data packets from the buffer list corresponds to the classes of service available in the new sector.

44. The system of claim 38, further comprising means to, in response to at least a further section change, prior to emptying the pre-sector change packets for the class of service queues, holding further post-sector change packets for the mobile device until the pre-sector change and the post-sector change packets have been emptied from the class of service queues.