Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Kevin Purser

Suresh Bhogavilli

Fredrik Alriksson

Mahmood Hossain

Ulf Fredrik Jönsson

Chirayu Shah

Providing resiliency for mobile terminal data sessions, wherein the data sessions rely on Internet Protocol Version 4 and wherein at least one Home Agent node maintains a mobility bindings database for all registered mobile terminals while they are away from a home network. A first aspect of the invention provides physical Home Agent redundancy, perceived by each mobile node as Home Agent IP address redundancy, and a second aspect provides session resiliency. While the second aspect of the invention provides for session resiliency, it uses a mechanism of the former for master failure detection and Home Agent IP address take-over by a backup Home Agent.

Apparatus and methods for home agent resiliency for mobile IPv4

In a wireless or mobile ad hoc network the routing interworks with the ordinary Internet routing using the Mobile IP. Mobile IP foreign agents are used as gateways between the ad hoc network and the Internet. The nodes in the ad hoc network use their home addresses for all communication and register with a foreign agent in the network. To send packets to hosts on the Internet either tunnelling or proxying is used. To receive packets from the Internet the packets are routed to the foreign agent using the Mobile IP. The foreign agent then routes the packets to the destination in the ad hoc network. Since the ordinary Mobile IP requires link-layer connectivity between the foreign agent and a visiting node which is not guaranteed on the ad hoc network, modifications are accordingly made to the procedures of the Mobile IP.

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Bethesda, MD, United States of America

Kevin Purser