Patent ID: 7342903

Claim:
A communications method, for use with a first mobile node, the method comprising: operating a mobility management node to receive mobility management signals relating to said first mobile node; storing, in response to the received mobility management signals, tunnel information defining first and second incoming tunnels and an outgoing tunnel, said tunnels being associated with said first mobile node, said incoming and outgoing being relative to said mobility agent node; said stored tunnel information including an IP address of said first mobile node which is associated with said first and second incoming tunnels and said outgoing tunnel; said stored tunnel information, defining said first incoming tunnel and said outgoing tunnel, including first and second tunnel end node addresses corresponding to first and second tunnel end nodes, respectively, the end nodes of said first incoming tunnel and said outgoing tunnel being the same, the first tunnel end node address being an address corresponding to said mobility management node, the second tunnel end node address being a destination address of the outgoing tunnel and a source address of said first incoming tunnel; and said stored tunnel information, defining said second incoming tunnel, including third and fourth tunnel end node addresses corresponding to third and fourth tunnel end nodes, respectively, the third tunnel end node address being the destination address of the second incoming tunnel and corresponding to said nobility management node, said fourth tunnel end node address being different from said first, second and third tunnel end node addresses and being the source address of the second incoming tunnel.