Provisioning seamless applications in mobile terminals through registering and transferring of application context

An access router adapted to participate in transferring an application context of a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the access router comprising:

• a first communications interface that communicates with the mobile terminal;
• a second interface in communication with another access router;
• and
• a processor in communication with the first and second interfaces, the processor configured to perform the steps of:
• (a) receiving an application context from the mobile terminal in communication with the first communications interface;
• and
• (b) transmitting the application context to the another access router via the second interface.

An access router adapted to participate in transferring an application context of a session involving a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the access router comprising:

• a first communications interface that communicates with the mobile terminal;
• a second interface in communication with an originating access router;
• and
• a processor in communication with both of the interfaces, the processor configured to perform the steps of:
• (a) receiving an application context from the another access router via the another interface;
• and
• (b) evaluating the application context to determine whether steps are necessary to ensure a substantially seamless continuation of the session after the handoff.

A network entity adapted to participate in enabling a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on a mobile terminal across access networks for a session, the network entity comprising:

• a network communications interface in communication with an access router;
• and
• a processor in communication with the interface, the processor configured to perform the steps of:
• (a) receiving instructions from the access router for managing communication packets related to the session in accordance with the application context;
• (b) receiving communication packets related to the session;
• and
• (c) managing the communication packets in accordance with the instructions.

A method for transferring an application context for a session involving an application executing on a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of the mobile terminal, the method comprising:

• (a) receiving instructions from an access router for managing communication packets related to the session;
• (b) receiving communication packets related to the session;
• and
• (c) managing the communication packets in accordance with the instructions.

A mobile terminal adapted to participate in transferring an application context to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of an application executing on the mobile terminal across access networks, the terminal comprising:

• a communications interface;
• and
• a processor communicating through the communications interface, the processor configured to perform the steps of:
• (a) constructing an application context for a streaming video session involving the mobile terminal, the streaming video session comprising data having a bandwidth and coding format, the application context comprising information about the session, the information comprising the bandwidth and coding format;
• (b) formatting the application context into a format for transmission to the current access router;
• (c) transmitting the application context to the current access router;
• and
• (d) sending a handoff trigger to the current access router to transfer the application context to a different access router.

An access router adapted to participate in transferring an application context of a streaming video session involving an application executing on a mobile terminal to enable a substantially seamless network level handoff of the application on the mobile terminal across access networks, the streaming video session having a first bandwidth, the access router comprising:

• a first communications interface that communicates with the mobile terminal;
• a second interface in communication with an originating access router;
• and
• a processor in communication with both of the interfaces, the processor configured to perform the steps of:
• (a) receiving an application context from the another access router via the another interface;
• and
• (b) evaluating the application context to determine whether steps are necessary to ensure a substantially seamless continuation of the session after the handoff;
• (c) establishing a relationship with a network entity for processing data transferred as part of the session, the processing comprising transcoding the streaming video data from a first bandwidth to a second bandwidth;
• (d) receiving communication packets containing data with a first bandwidth associated with the streaming video session via one of the interfaces;
• (e) encapsulating the communication packets;
• (f) transmitting the encapsulated packets to the network entity;
• (g) receiving encapsulated packets containing transcoded data from the network entity;
• (h) de-encapsulating the transcoded packets, the transcoded data having a second bandwidth;
• and
• (i) transmitting the packets containing transcoded packets to the network terminal.