Claims
- 1. A method of coordinating the handoff of a mobile carrier between a first access network and a second access network, the method comprising:
handing off from a first access network that said mobile carrier is currently operating within to a second access network; and building a physical access network topology based on said handing off without input from either said first access network or said second access network.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said building is accomplished without identifying or interrogating operators of either said first access network or said second access network.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said first access network communicates with a first access router and said second access network communicates with a second access router.
- 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said first access router and said second access router communicates with a home agent.
- 5. The method of claim 4, wherein said home agent comprises a Hyper Operator and Hyper Operator Overlay Node.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein a size of a coverage area of said first access network differs from a size of a coverage area of said second access network.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein Mobile IP is implemented in said first access network and said second access network.
- 8. The method of claim 4, further comprising sending a binding update message from one of said first and second access routers to said home agent.
- 9. The method of claim 8, wherein said first access router sends said binding update message to said home agent.
- 10. The method of claim 1, wherein said building is accomplished with a binding update message which includes a foreign agent address.
- 11. The method of claim 9, wherein said sending occurs when a new care of address message is received from said second access router.
- 12. The method of claim 8, wherein said building a physical access network topology comprises estimating said physical access network topology based on said binding update message.
- 13. The method of claim 12, wherein said binding update message indicates a geographical overlapping between said first access network and said second access network.
- 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether said mobile device has been turned off from the time said mobile device was present within said first access network to when said mobile device is present within said second access network.
- 15. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether said mobile device has been turned off from the time said mobile device was present within said first access network to when said mobile device is present within said second access network.
- 16. The method of claim 8, wherein said binding update message comprises an extension that contains information that distinguishes a handoff occurrence.
- 17. The method of claim 16, wherein said information is L2 level information.
- 18. The method of claim 16, wherein said information is above L4 level information.
- 19. The method of claim 16, wherein said binding update message comprises an extension that contains information that determines whether there is a geographical relation between said first access router and said second access outer when said mobile device has lost connection with both said first access router and said second access router.
- 20. The method of claim 19, wherein said information is a time stamp indicating when said mobile device lost connection.
- 21. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking a direction of said handoff.
- 22. The method of claim 7, further comprising tracking a number of care of address changes between said first access network and said second access network.
- 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising determining whether there is overlapping between said first access router and said second access router based on said number of care of address changes.
- 24. The method of claim 1, further comprising suggesting an access network interface to be activated by said mobile device based on said physical access network topology.
- 25. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a paging area based on the neighboring access routers around the current associated access router by using said physical access network topology map.
- 26. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an access network interface to said mobile device that is unavailable to said mobile device.
- 27. The method of claim 24, further comprising identifying an access network interface to said mobile device that is unavailable to said mobile device.
- 28. A method of determining a geographical relationship between a first access network and a second access network as a mobile device moves between a first access network and a second access network, the method comprising:
losing connection with a mobile device located within a first access network; establishing connection with said mobile device within a second access network; and determining a geographical relationship between said first access network and said second access network based on a chronological relationship between a time of said losing connection and a time of said establishing connection.
- 29. The method of claim 28, wherein said determining is performed without input from either said first access network or said second access network.
- 30. The method of claim 28, wherein said determining is accomplished without identifying or interrogating operators of either said first access network or said second access network.
- 31. The method of claim 28, wherein said first access network communicates with a first access router and said second access network communicates with a second access router.
- 32. The method of claim 28, further comprising:
establishing a first time stamp based on a time of occurrence of said loss of connection; establishing a second time stamp based on a time of receiving of said binding update message and wherein said determining is based on said first time stamp and said second time stamp.
- 33. The method of claim 32, wherein said determining is based on a difference between said first time stamp and said second time stamp.
- 34. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining whether said mobile device associated with said losing connection is the same as a mobile device associated with said establishing connection.
- 35. The method of claim 34, further determining whether said mobile device with said sending binding update message is the same as a mobile device associated with said losing connection based on the device identity.
- 36. The method of claim 34, wherein said determining is performed even if a home address of said mobile device associated with said losing connection is different than a home address of said mobile device associated with said establishing connection.
- 37. The method of claim 28, further determining whether said mobile device can handoff from a first access router to a second access router based on a frequency of handoff experience between said first access router and said second access router.
- 38. The method of claim 37, wherein the accuracy of said geographical relationship between said first access network and said second access network is increased based on the frequency of handoff between said first access router and said second access router.
- 39. The method of claim 28, further comprising handing off from a first access router to a second access router, wherein the accuracy of said geographical relationship between said first access network and said second access network is increased based on transmitting a binding update message through said first access router instead of transmitting through said second access router.
Parent Case Info
[0001] Applicants claim, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), the benefit of priority of the filing date of Apr. 5, 2002, of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/370,302 filed on the aforementioned date, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60370302 |
Apr 2002 |
US |