US 8,948,129 B2Granted

Methods and apparatus for virtual soft handoff

AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.

InventorsJames Murphy, Abhijit Choudhury

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Abstract

In some embodiments, a non-transitory processor-readable medium includes code to cause a processor to receive at a tunnel server, a data unit addressed to a communication device, and define, a first instance of the data unit and a second instance of the data unit. The first instance of the data unit is sent to the communication device via a first tunnel defined between at least the tunnel server and a first base station associated with a first network. The second instance of the data unit is sent to the communication device via a second tunnel defined between at least the tunnel server and a second base station associated with a second network. The second instance of the data unit is dropped by the communication device when the first instance of the data unit is received before the second instance of the data unit.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising instructions to cause the processor to:

receive, at a tunnel server, a first data unit addressed to a communication device, the first data unit having a first data type;
define, based on the first data unit, a first instance of the first data unit and a second instance of the first data unit;
send the first instance of the first data unit to the communication device via a first tunnel defined between at least the tunnel server and a first base station associated with a first network and operatively coupled to the communication device;
send the second instance of the first data unit to the communication device via a second tunnel defined between at least the tunnel server and a second base station associated with a second network different from the first network and operatively coupled to the communication device
resulting in the communication device dropping the second instance of the first data unit when the first instance of the first data unit is received by the communication device prior to the second instance of the first data unit;
receive, at the tunnel server, a second data unit addressed to the communication device, the second data unit having a second data type different from the first data type;
define, based on the second data unit, a first instance of the second data unit and a second instance of the second data unit;
send the first instance of the second data unit to the communication device via the first tunnel;
and
send the second instance of the second data unit to the communication device via the second tunnel.

7 more elements

An apparatus, comprising:

a tunnel server configured to receive a data unit addressed to a communication device, the tunnel server configured to define, based on the data unit, a first instance of the data unit and a second instance of the data unit, the tunnel server configured to send the first instance of the data unit to the communication device via a first tunnel (1) associated with a first network and (2) defined between at least the tunnel server and the communication device,
the tunnel server configured to send the second instance of the data unit to the communication device via a second tunnel (1) associated with a second network different from the first network and (2) defined between at least the tunnel server and the communication device resulting in the communication device dropping the second instance of the data unit when the first instance of the data unit is received by the communication device,
the tunnel service configured to receive an indication that a signal quality associated with the first network has crossed a threshold, the tunnel server configured to terminate the first tunnel based on the indication.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/472,802Filed 16 May 2012
Published: US 2013/0308597 A121 Nov 2013
Granted: 3 Feb 2015
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification12 codes

H04W 36/18
Performing reselection for specific purposes: for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection
H04L 12/4633
Interconnection of networks: interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
H04L 12/4641
Interconnection of networks: virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN]
H04L 12/6418
Hybrid switching systems: hybrid transport