Mobile IP addressing

In a multi-mode wireless communications access terminal (AT), a method for mobile Internet Protocol (IP) addressing, the method comprising:

• providing an AT having an IP address (ATA) and a care-of-addresses (CoA) in each of a plurality of networks;
• from the plurality of networks, selecting a first network;
• and,
• receiving an IP packet from a correspondent node (CN) with the ATA listed as a destination address, via a first mobile node (MN) external device.

A multi-mode wireless communications access terminal (AT) system for sending Internet Protocol (IP) packets using mobile IP (MIP) addressing, the system comprising:

• an AT comprising:
• a plurality of communication subsystems having wireless transceivers for communicating with external device mobile units (MNs) in a corresponding plurality of networks;
• and,
• a MIP addressing module having communication subsystem interfaces and an AT IP address (ATA) cross-referenced to a care-of-address (CoA) for each of the plurality of MNs, the MIP addressing module selecting a first network for transmission, and sending an IP packet to a correspondent node (CN) using the ATA as the source address, via a first MN.

A multi-mode wireless communications access terminal (AT) system for receiving Internet Protocol (IP) packets using mobile IP (MIP) addressing, the system comprising:

• an AT comprising:
• a plurality of communication subsystems having wireless transceivers for communicating with external device mobile units (MNs) in a corresponding plurality of networks;
• and,
• a MIP addressing module having communication subsystem interfaces and an AT IP address (ATA) cross-referenced to a care-of-address (CoA) for each of the plurality of MNs, the MIP addressing module receiving an IP packet from a correspondent node (CN) with the ATA listed as the destination address, via a first MN.

A multi-mode wireless communications access terminal (AT) processing device for sending Internet Protocol (IP) packets using mobile IP (MIP) addressing, the processing device comprising:

• interfaces for a plurality of communication subsystems wirelessly communicating with external device mobile units (MNs) in a corresponding plurality of networks;
• a memory for storing an AT IP address (ATA);
• and,
• a network address selector for sending an IP packet to a correspondent node (CN) using the ATA as the source address, via a first MN with a first care-of-address (CoA).

In a multi-mode wireless communications access terminal (AT), a signal bearing medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus to perform operations for mobile Internet Protocol (IP) addressing, the operations comprising:

• providing an AT having an IP address (ATA) and a care-of-address (CoA) in each of a plurality of networks;
• from the plurality of networks, selecting a first network for transmission;
• and,
• sending an IP packet to a correspondent node (CN) via a first mobile node (MN) external device, using the ATA as a source address.