System, apparatus, and method for distributed home agents in a mobile IP environment
AssigneeFuturewei Technologies, Inc.
InventorBehcet Sarikaya
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Included is an apparatus comprising a first network node in a first network configured to act as a home agent (HA) for a mobile node (MN), wherein the first network is one of a plurality of networks that connect to the MN, and wherein a second network that connects to the MN comprises a second network node configured to act as a second HA for the MN. Also included is a method comprising receiving, by a first network node, a binding update message, wherein the first network node is in a first network, and wherein the first network node is configured to act as a HA for a MN; and sending, by the first network node, a binding acknowledgement, wherein the binding update message comprises a multicast state of the MN.
Claims19
An apparatus positioned in a local network comprising:
- a transmitter;
- a receiver;
- and a processor coupled to the transmitter and receiver and configured to cause the apparatus to:
- negotiate a connection with a mobile node (MN);
- selectively act as a local home agent (HA) in the local network only for MN flows initiated while the MN is connected to the local network, wherein the local network is not a home network for the MN, wherein acting as a local HA comprises managing control signaling for the MN and not managing data signaling for the MN, and wherein managing control signaling comprises managing binding registrations for the MN;
- and forward communications regarding MN flows that are not initiated while the MN is connected to the local network to a foreign HA in a foreign network.
A method implemented in a local network node in
- a local network comprising:
- negotiating a connection with a mobile node (MN);
- selectively acting as a local home agent (HA) in the local network only for MN flows initiated while the MN is connected to the local network, wherein the local network is not a home network for the MN, wherein acting as the local HA comprises managing control signaling for the MN and not managing data signaling for the MN, and wherein managing control signaling comprises managing binding registrations for the MN;
- receiving a binding update message from the MN, wherein the binding update message comprises a multicast listener state of the MN related to an MN flow initiated via the local network;
- and acting as a Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Querier for the MN using the multicast listener state from the binding update message.
A method implemented in a local control plane node in a local network comprising:
- negotiating a connection with a mobile node (MN);
- selectively acting as a local control plane home agent (CPHA) in the local network only for MN flows initiated while the MN is connected to the local network, wherein the local network is not a home network for the MN, wherein acting as a local CPHA comprises managing control signaling for the MN and not managing data signaling for the MN, and wherein managing control signaling comprises managing binding registrations for the MN;
- causing a local data plane node positioned in the local network to selectively act as a data plane home agent (DPHA) for the MN by managing data signaling only for MN flows initiated while the MN is connected to the local network;
- and
- forwarding control communications regarding MN flows that are not initiated while the MN is connected to the local network to a foreign home agent (HA) in a foreign network.
A method comprising:
- sending, by a home agent capable access router (HA), router advertisements (RAs) with a home agent information option, wherein the HA selectively acts as a local HA in a local network only for mobile node (MN) flows initiated while the MN is connected to the local network, wherein the local network is not a home network for the MN, wherein acting as a local HA comprises managing control signaling for the MN and not managing data signaling for the MN, and wherein managing control signaling comprises managing binding registrations for the MN;
- caching, by the mobile node (MN), the HA address when the MN receives the RA;
- moving, by the MN, to a second link and using a second HA;
- getting, by the MN, a new Care of Address (CoA) on the second link;
- sending, by the MN, a binding update message to the first HA on a first link to register the CoA with the first HA;
- and receiving, by the MN, a binding acknowledgement from the first HA, wherein the MN does not establish any bindings with the first HA until it moves to the second link and still has active sessions initiated on the first link.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.