Method and system for securely transferring context updates towards a mobile node in a wireless network

A system for enabling a new access router (NR) to communicate securely with a node (N) over a network, comprising:

• (a) a destination for packets sent over the network;
• and
• (b) the node N that performs actions, including:
• (i) enabling a Security Association (SA) between a previous access router (PR) and N;
• and
• (ii) employing the SA between PR and N to enable NR to communicate securely with N when N is associated with NR.

An apparatus for enabling a new access router (NR) to communicate securely with a node (N) over a network, comprising:

• (a) a network interface that employs a packet-based protocol to send and receive packets over a wireless interface;
• and
• (b) a transcoder that performs actions, including:
• (i) enabling a Security Association (SA) between a previous access router (PR) and N;
• and
• (ii) employing the SA between PR and N to enable NR to communicate securely with N when N is associated with NR.

A computer-readable medium that includes instructions for performing actions, including:

• (a) enabling a Security Association (SA) between a previous access router (PR) and N;
• (b) employing the SA between PR and N to enable NR to communicate securely with N when N is associated with NR;
• (c) if N is subsequently associated with NR instead of PR, causing PR to securely transfer at least one context associated with N to NR, wherein each transferred context was previously created between PR and N;
• (d) if NR differently enables at least one element of a transferred context for N, causing NR to securely provide an update to N indicating each different element of the transferred context;
• and
• (e) enabling a security association between PR and N to be recreated between NR and N for the transferred context, wherein the recreated security association is based on the context transferred by PR to NR and any update to the context that is provided by NR to N.