Mobile node for transmitting a request for information which specifies a transfer device to be used

• US 7,529,214 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2004
• Issued: 05/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Okajima, Ichiro, Inoue, Masahiro, Omae, Koji, Umeda, Narumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng; George
• Assistant Examiner(s): FARAGALLA, MICHAEL A
• Application Number:
  US10/785,061
• Publication Number:
  US 20040165565A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,896 Days
• Field of Search: 455436-445, 370389-399, 370331-334, 370/338, 370351-356, 709230-244
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5069 for group communication, multicast communication or broadcast communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/36 due to handover
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/085 involving hierarchical organized mobility servers, e.g. hierarchical mobile IP [HMIP]

Abstract

A communication system includes a MN for transmitting a request for information which specifies a MAP to be used for packet reception and anycast address regarding a plurality of MAPs to a given AR connected to the MN, routers for transmitting the request to a MAP which has a shortest distance from the given AR based on the anycast address transmitted from the given AR, and each of the MAPS for transmitting the information which specifies the MAP to the MN.

Claims

1. A communication system including a plurality of transfer devices for transferring packets to a current location of a mobile terminal, a plurality of access router devices arranged in a network to be able to connect to the mobile terminal, a plurality of routers connecting the plurality of access router devices and each of the plurality of transfer devices, and the mobile terminal connected to a first of the plurality of access router devices to receive the packets from one of the plurality of a transfer devices through the first access router device, the system comprising:

a first transmitter provided at the mobile terminal configured to transmit instruction information, which instructs one of the plurality of transfer devices to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal, to an anycast address assigned in common with the plurality of transfer devices;

a second transmitter provided at the first access router device configured to receive the instruction information and to relay the instruction information to a router included in the plurality of routers and connected to the first access router device;

a third transmitter provided at the plurality of routers or the first access router device configured to transmit the instruction information to a nearest transfer device which has a shortest distance from the first access router device on the network among the plurality of transfer devices to which the anycast address is assigned; and

a fourth transmitter provided at the nearest transfer device configured to receive the instruction information and to transmit specification information, which specifies the nearest transfer device, to the mobile terminal, wherein

when the mobile terminal executes a handoff from the first access router to a second access router, and an on-link care of address used by the mobile terminal is changed from a first on-link care of address to a second on-link care of address based on the handoff, the mobile terminal performs unicast transmission to transmit instruction information that includes the second on-link care of address to be used by the mobile terminal after the handoff to the nearest transfer device having a shortest distance from the first access router to which the mobile terminal was connected prior to the handoff.

2. The communication system according to claim 1,

wherein each of the plurality of transfer devices transmits packets, transmitted from a communication opponent device and addressed to the mobile terminal, to the first access router device based on the first on-link care of address which indicates a location of the current location of the mobile terminal,

the first transmitter transmits the instruction information, which instructs one of the plurality of transfer devices to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the first on-link care of address of the mobile terminal,

the fourth transmitter further configured to transfer the packets based on the first on-link care of address of the mobile terminal in accordance with the instruction information, and

the mobile terminal includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire the specification information transmitted from the third transmitter.

3. A mobile terminal used in a communication system which includes a plurality of transfer devices for transferring packets to a current location of the mobile terminal, a plurality of access router devices arranged in a network to connect to the mobile terminal, a plurality of routers connecting the plurality of access router devices and each of the plurality of transfer devices, and the mobile terminal connected to a first of the plurality of access router devices to receive the packets from one of the plurality of a transfer devices through the first access router device, the mobile terminal comprising:

a first transmitter configured to transmit first instruction information, which instructs one of the plurality of transfer devices to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal, to an anycast address assigned in common with the plurality of transfer devices; and

a receiver configured to receive specification information specifying a nearest transfer device, which has a shortest distance from the first access router device on the network among the plurality of transfer devices, when the first instruction information is transmitted to the nearest transfer device based on the anycast address, wherein

when the mobile terminal executes a handoff from the first access router to a second access router, and an on-link care of address used by the mobile terminal is changed from a first on-link care of address to a second on-link care of address based on the handoff, the mobile terminal performs unicast transmission to transmit instruction information that includes the second on-link care of address to be used by the mobile terminal after the handoff to the nearest transfer device having a shortest distance from the first access router to which the mobile terminal was connected prior to the handoff.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 3, further comprising:

a first manager configured to manage the first on-link care of address which indicates a current location of the mobile terminal,

wherein, the first transmitter transmits the first instruction information when the first on-link care of address managed by the first manager is changed.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 3, further comprising:

a second manager configured to manage information which specifies a transfer device currently used for packet reception, and

a second transmitter configured to transmit a second instruction information to the transfer device specified by the specification information and to transmit third instruction information to a home agent device, when the specification information is different from the information managed by the second manager,

wherein the second instruction information instructs the transfer device specified by the specification information to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the first on-link care of address which indicates a location of the current location of the mobile terminal, and

the third instruction information instructs the home agent to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the specification information.

6. The mobile terminal according to claim 5,

wherein the specification information received by the receiver is necessary for generating a regional care-of address which contains information specifying a network in which the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device is present,

a generator is disposed and configured to generate the regional care-of address based on the specification information, and

the second manager manages the regional care-of address generated by the generator as information which specifies the transfer device currently used for packet reception.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 5,

wherein the specification information received by the receiver is a regional care-of address which contains information specifying a network in which the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device is present, and

the second manager manages the regional care-of address received by the receiver as information which specifies the transfer device currently used for packet reception.

8. The mobile terminal according to claim 7,

wherein the second transmitter transmits the second instruction information to the transfer device specified by the specification information and transmits the third instruction information to the home agent device, when the regional care-of address received by the receiver is different from the regional care-of address managed by the second manager, and

the second instruction information instructs the transfer device specified by the specification information to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on a correspondence between the regional care-of address received by the receiver and the first on-link care of addresses, and

the third instructs the home agent to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the first regional care-of address received by the receiver.

9. The mobile terminal according to claim 3, further comprising:

a first acquisition unit configured to acquire the specification information specifying the transfer device which has the shortest distance from the first access router device received by the receiver as information which specifies a transfer device used for packet reception,

wherein the first transmitter transmits the first instruction information, which instructs one of the plurality of transfer devices to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the first on-link care of address which indicates a location of the current location of the mobile terminal.

10. The mobile terminal according to claim 9, further comprising:

a first manager configured to manage the first on-link care of address of the mobile terminal;

a second manager configured to manage information which specifies the transfer device currently used for packet reception; and

a third transmitter configured to transmit a fourth instruction information to the transfer device currently used for packet reception, when the first on-link care of address managed by the first manager is changed to the second on-link care of address,

wherein the fourth instruction information instructs the transfer device currently used for packet reception to transfer device currently used for packet reception to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the second on-link care of address, and

after the execution of the transmission processing of the fourth instruction information by the third transmitter, the first transmitter transmits the first instruction information at each time interval shorter than the fixed period of time.

11. The mobile terminal according to claim 3, further comprising:

a second acquisition unit configured to acquire information which specifies a transfer device used for packet reception,

wherein the first transmitter transmits the first instruction information, which instructs one of the plurality of transfer devices to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on a correspondence between the first on-link care of address, which indicates a location of the current location of the mobile terminal, and a predetermined regional care-of address,

the specification information received by the receiver is a regional care-of address which contains information specifying a network in which the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device is present, and

the second acquisition unit acquires the regional care-of address of the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device as the information which specifies the transfer device used for packet reception, in a case where the predetermined regional care-of address contains no information specifying the network in which the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device is present.

12. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, further comprising:

a fourth transmitter configured to transmit fifth instruction information to a home agent device,

wherein the fifth instruction information instructs the home agent to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the regional care-of address of the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device.

13. The mobile terminal according to claim 3, further comprising:

a third manager configured to manage an address of a transfer device currently used for packet reception, and

a fifth transmitter configured to transmit a sixth instruction to a home agent device,

wherein the specification information received by the receiver is an address allocated to the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device,

the sixth instruction information instructs the home agent to transfer the packets to the mobile terminal based on the address allocated to the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device, and

the fifth transmitter transmits the sixth instruction information, when the address allocated to the transfer device having the shortest distance from the first access router device is different from the address managed by the third manager.