Downlink packet replication to support handover

A method comprising:

• obtaining a notification that a handover is to occur for a user equipment from a source access point to a target access point;
• providing, to the target access point, an indication to decapsulate encapsulated downlink packets destined for the user equipment, wherein the encapsulated downlink packets destined for the user equipment are encapsulated with an outer header identifying the source access point as a source of the encapsulated downlink packets destined for the user equipment and further identifying the target access point as a destination of the encapsulated downlink packets destined for the user equipment;
• and
• providing, to the source access point, an indication to replicate downlink packets destined for the user equipment to generate a first copy of the downlink packets destined for the user equipment and a second copy of the downlink packets destined for the user equipment, and encapsulate the first copy of the downlink packets destined for the user equipment with the outer header to generate the encapsulated downlink packets destined for the user equipment.

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to obtain or provide network communications;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the network interface, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
• obtain a notification that a handover is to occur for a user equipment from a source access point to a target access point;
• identify a routing locator for a tunnel router associated with the source access point and a routing locator for a tunnel router associated with the target access point;
• and
• provide, to a map server, a registration message including a mapping of an endpoint identifier of the user equipment to the routing locator for the tunnel router associated with the source access point and the routing locator for the tunnel router associated with the target access point, wherein
• based on the registration message, the map server causes downlink packets destined for the user equipment to be replicated and provided to the source access point and to the target access point.