Mobile IP communication scheme using visited site or nearby network as temporal home network

• US 6,587,882 B1
• Filed: 08/03/1998
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Ishiyama, Masahiro, Inoue, Atsushi, Fukumoto, Atsushi, Tsuda, Yoshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDELMAN, BRADLEY E
• Application Number:
  US09/128,012
• Time in Patent Office: 1,793 Days
• Field of Search: 709/250, 709/219, 709/220, 709/222, 709/221, 709/227, 709/228, 709/245, 370/371, 370/338, 455/433
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/06 Registration at serving network Location Register, VLR or user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/065 involving selection of the user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

A mobile IP communication scheme in which a visited site or nearby network of a mobile computer is utilized as a temporal home network of a mobile computer. The mobile computer exchanges a message with a mobile computer management device provided in a visited site or nearby network from a visited site, so as to acquire a network configuration information of the visited site or nearby network, and sets the acquired network configuration information in a communication program to be used in carrying out communications. The mobile computer management device leases a temporal home address to be used by an externally located mobile computer in response to a request message from the mobile computer, and registers the mobile computer as a mobile node which regards a network to which the mobile computer management device belongs as a home network, in response to a registration message from the mobile computer.

Claims

1. A mobile computer device capable of carrying out communications while moving over inter-connected networks including a first network that is an original home network of the mobile computer device and a second network that is a visited site network of the mobile computer device, the mobile computer device comprising:

an exchange processing unit configured to receive a network configuration information of the second network from a management device of the second network at a time of moving from the first network to the second network, when it is possible to receive the network configuration information from the management device of the second network; and

a communication control unit configured to control communications by selecting a new communication setting that indicates the second network as a home network of the mobile computer device or an original communication setting that indicates the first network as a home network of the mobile computer device, when the network configuration information received from the management device of the second network contains a home address information of the management device of the second network.