Patent ID: 6611510
Filing Date: 2003-08-26
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
A method for providing soft handoff of a mobile terminal between different administrative domains in a wireless internet protocol (IP) network, said network including an IP backbone network having a multicast agent and an edge router, each administrative domain including a plurality of base stations and a multicast DHCP server, and said mobile terminal having a unique identifier and a plurality of unicast addresses, said method comprising the steps ofthe mobile terminal upon leaving a first administrative domain and entering a second administrative domain establishing unicast network connections with the plurality of base stations in the second administrative domain, each connection corresponding to a unicast address, the mobile terminal transmitting with its unique identifier an IP multicast address request to the multicast DHCP server in the second administrative domain, and the multicast DHCP server in the second administrative domain determining the availability of a multicast address in the second administrative domain and assigning that multicast address to the mobile terminal, said multicast address being associated with the unicast addresses of the mobile terminal.