Method and apparatus for providing an indication regarding ip address preservation following a transfer involving a wireless local area network

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to facilitate the transition of user equipment between basic service sets within a WLAN or from a basic service set within a WLAN to a cellular data link of a cellular network. In the context of a method from the perspective of the user equipment, a message is received that identifies one or more basic service sets or cellular data links to which user equipment is potentially capable of transferring. For each basic set or cellular data link, the method includes determining from the message whether the respective basic service set or cellular data link is a candidate to permit an internet protocol (IP) address of the user equipment to be preserved following the transfer. The method includes an indication associated with each respective basic service set or cellular data link to identify whether the IP address of the user equipment is able to be preserved following the transfer thereto.