MOBILITY LABEL-BASED NETWORKS

• US 20090022115A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Services Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: MALIS, Andrew G., BERZIN, Oleg L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,081,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/507 Label distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update

Abstract

A device may receive a discovery signal from a mobile node, register the mobile node in response to receiving the discovery signal from the mobile node, assign a mobility label to the mobile node after the registration, distribute messages describing the mobility label and the mobile node to edge routers in the network to create a label switched path, and route communication messages from a remote node to the mobile node along the label switched path in the network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a discovery signal from a mobile node;

registering the mobile node in response to receiving the discovery signal from the mobile node;

assigning a mobility label to the mobile node after the registration;

distributing messages describing the mobility label and the mobile node to edge routers in the network to create a label switched path; and

routing communication messages from a remote node to the mobile node along the label switched path in the network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a unicast address to the mobile node in response to the discovery signal.

3. The method of claim 1, where receiving the discovery signal includes one of:

receiving the discovery signal from the mobile node directly through a direct layer 2 path;

or

receiving the discovery signal from the mobile node and communicating the mobility label identifying the mobile node indirectly through a communication path that includes a layer 3 device.

4. The method of claim 1, where registering the mobile node includes one of:

registering a mobile router;

or

registering a mobile host.

5. The method of claim 1, where distributing messages includes:

distributing the messages to the edge routers in accordance with an inter-domain signaling protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, where distributing messages includes:

distributing the messages to the edge routers in accordance with a multi-protocol border gateway protocol.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

distributing the mobility label in accordance with a label distribution protocol;

or

distributing the mobility label in accordance with a resource reservation protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, where distributing messages:

creating messages that include network level reachability information; and

sending the messages that include the network level reachability information to the edge routers.

9. The method of claim 1, where distributing messages includes:

sending the messages from a customer edge router at which the mobile node is registered to an edge router in the multi-protocol label switching network.

10. The method of claim 1, where assigning a mobility label includes:

association of a multi-protocol label switching label with the mobile node after the registration.

11. A device comprising:

a mobility support function module to;

exchange messages with a mobile node,

register the mobile node in response to at least one of the messages, and

link the mobile node to the device via a communication path; and

a routing module to;

propagate a mobility label associated with the mobile device to edge routers in a network in accordance with an inter-domain signaling protocol, and

distribute the mobility label associated with the mobile device to routers that are within a multi-protocol label switching network portion of the network in accordance with a distribution protocol.

12. The device of claim 11, where the communication path includes:

a direct link or an indirect link to the mobile node via a radio access network.

13. The device of claim 11, where the messages include at least one of:

a solicitation message from the mobile node;

or

a registration message from the mobile node.

14. The device of claim 11, where the mobile node includes one of:

a mobile host;

or

a mobile router.

15. The device of claim 11, where the inter-domain signaling protocol includes:

a multi-protocol border gateway protocol.

16. The device of claim 11, where the distribution protocol includes at least one of:

a label distribution protocol;

or

a resource reservation protocol.

17. The device of claim 11, where the device is a customer edge router.

18. The device of claim 11, where one of the messages includes:

an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device.

19. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

a forwarding module to;

route messages from a remote node in the network to the mobile node based on a network path that is established by the propagation of the mobility label and the distribution of the mobility label.

20. A device comprising:

means for obtaining registration information from a mobile node;

means for registering the mobile node based on the registration information;

means for assigning a mobility label to the mobile node in response to the registration;

means for signaling edge routers in a network with inter-domain messages that include at least part of the registration information and the mobility label; and

means for sending packets on a label switched path created based on the signaling.