Method for providing home agent geographic redundancy

• US 8,437,305 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheever, Greg, Puthiyandyil, Sanil Kumar, Ramankutty, Rajesh, Vasamsetti, Satya (Satish), Drumheller, Clarence
• Primary Examiner(s): Prez-Gutirrez, Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miah, Liton
• Application Number:
  US11/286,049
• Publication Number:
  US 20070116019A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,722 Days
• Field of Search: 370/217, 370/329, 370/331, 455/433, 455/435.1, 455/502
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/12 between location registers or mobility servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing redundancy in servicing packet data communications within wireless mobile data networks are disclosed. More particularly, the method and system for provide a redundant Home Agent with the ability to assume the role of the primary Home Agent in the event of a primary Home Agent network, software, or other failure. The redundancy allows Home Agent services to remain functional in the case of a failure of one of the Home Agents in the redundant group, which may be composed of one or more Home Agents. The Home Agents can be located in geographically separate areas to ensure that a network outage event in one geographic area does not cause subscriber services to be impacted.

Claims

1. A method for providing Home Agent redundancy comprising:

initializing a second Home Agent to a Standby state to provide geographic redundancy for a first Home Agent that is located in a geographically separate area from the second Home Agent, wherein the first Home Agent is in an Active state and provides mobility management functions for a plurality of mobile nodes;

receiving backup information at the second Home Agent from the first Home Agent, wherein the backup information includes data to continue a call on the second Home Agent in the event of a switchover from the first Home Agent to the second Home Agent;

initiating a switchover from the first Home Agent to the second Home Agent such that the second Home Agent transitions from a Standby state to an Active state to provide mobility management functions for the plurality of mobile nodes;

advertising in an IP routing domain, through the use of a dynamic routing protocol, identification information and IP pool information at the second Home Agent after transitioning to an Active state, where the identification information includes the identification information of the first Home Agent to allow nodes in the network to transition to the second Home Agent without service interruption; and

receiving data at the second Home Agent sent from at least one of the plurality of mobile nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertising of identification information includes the advertising of loopback interface routes and a loopback address is shared between the first Home Agent and the second Home Agent.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the switchover is due to a failure associated with the first Home Agent.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising sending backup information to the second Home Agent in the Standby state for use in the switchover, wherein the backup information allows the second Home Agent to continue a call with the mobile node.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second Home Agent continues a call with the mobile node, wherein the call was initiated while the mobile node was communicating with the first Home Agent.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending backup information to the second Home Agent in the Standby state on a periodic basis.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing one or more routing attributes when more than one Home Agent is in the init state; and

initializing a Home Agent to an Active state based on the routing attributes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second Home Agent uses the same IP based address as the first Home Agent after transitioning to an Active state.

9. An apparatus for providing Home Agent redundancy comprising:

a second Home Agent in a Standby state and in communication with a first Home Agent, wherein the second Home Agent is located in a geographically separate area from the first Home Agent, the second Home Agent receiving backup information from the first Home Agent, wherein the second Home Agent is capable of switching from the Standby state to an Active state, wherein the second Home Agent upon switching from the Standby state to an Active state advertises in a IP routing domain through the use of a dynamic routing protocol IP pool and identification information that includes the identification information of the first Home Agent to allow nodes in the network to transition to the second Home Agent without service interruption, and provides mobility management functions for mobile nodes that were previously handled by the first Home Agent.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the advertising of identification information includes the advertising of loopback interface routes and a loopback address is shared between the first Home Agent and the second Home Agent.

11. The system of claim 9, in combination with the first Home Agent, wherein the switch from Standby state to Active state in the second Home Agent is due to a failure associated with the first Home Agent.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first Home Agent transitions from the Active state to the Standby state after coming back online following a failure that caused the switch from Standby state to Active state in the second Home Agent.

13. The system of claim 9, in combination with the first Home Agent wherein the first Home Agent sends backup information to the second Home Agent, wherein the backup information allows the second Home Agent to continue a call with a mobile node.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first Home Agent sends backup information to the second Home Agent is on a periodic basis.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the second Home Agent continues a call with the mobile node, wherein the call was initiated while the mobile node was communicating with the first Home Agent.

16. The system of claim 9, in combination with the first Home Agent, further comprising:

a first Home Agent in an Init state; and

a second Home Agent in an Init state, wherein the first Home Agent switches to an Active state based on comparison one or more routing attributes.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the second Home Agent uses the same IP based address as the first Home Agent after transitioning to an Active state.

18. A system for providing redundancy in a communication network comprising:

a second home agent means for providing mobility management functions for IP communications on behalf of a mobile node, which is initialized to a Standby state to provide backup redundancy, and receives backup information from a first home agent means for providing mobility management function that is located in a geographically separate area from the second home agent means, wherein the second home agent means is capable of switching from the Standby state to an Active state, wherein the second Home Agent means upon switching from a Standby state to an Active state advertises in a IP routing domain through the use of a dynamic routing protocol IP pool and identification information that includes the identification information of the first home agent means and provides mobility management functions for mobile nodes that were previously handled by the first home agent means.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the advertising of identification information includes the advertising of IP pool and loopback interface routes and a loopback address is shared between the first home agent means and the second home agent means.

20. The system of claim 18, in combination with the first home agent means, wherein the switchover from Standby state to Active state in the second home agent means is due to a failure associated with the first home agent means.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising means for causing the first home agent means to transition from the Active state to the Standby state after coming back online following a failure that caused the switch from Standby state to Active state in the second Home Agent means.

22. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for sending backup information to the second home agent means for use in the switchover.

23. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for sending backup information to the second home agent means on a periodic basis.

24. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for comparing one or more routing attributes when more than one means for providing mobility management is in the Init state; and

means for activating a means for providing mobility management based on the routing attributes.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the second home agent means uses the same IP based address as the first home agent means after transitioning to an Active state.