Patent ID: 7016325

Claim:
A system for wirelessly exchanging communications with at least one mobile unit, the system comprising: a first base station unit coupled to a network; a second base station unit coupled to the network, wherein the first and second base station units are configured to communicate wirelessly with the mobile unit under a Bluetooth protocol; wherein the first and second base station units are further configured for: at the first base station unit, receiving a communication from the mobile unit; at the first base station unit, requesting a unique session address for the mobile unit, wherein the unique address is associated with a unique Bluetooth Device Address (“BD_ADDR”); at the first base station unit, establishing a communications link with the mobile unit, wherein the communications link includes link context data associated with the mobile unit, and wherein the link context data associated with the mobile unit is identified at least in part based on the unique address; determining that the mobile unit is to be handed-off to the second base station unit; at the first base station unit, handing off to the second base station unit the communications link and link context associated with the mobile unit; a system controller coupled to the first and second base station units and to the network, wherein the system controller includes a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (“DHCP”) server, wherein requesting a unique session address includes: at the system controller, receiving the request, generating a locally unique Internet Protocol (“IP”) address via the DHCP server, mapping the generated IP address to the unique BD_ADDR, wherein the unique BD_ADDR is a six byte value, and wherein mapping includes generating a lower three bytes of the six bytes of the unique BD_ADDR based on the generated IP address, and forwarding to the first base station unit the unique BD_ADDR; wherein the first and second base station units include: upper and lower Bluetooth protocol stacks, a mobility protocol to perform generic mobility link establishing and link clearing, wherein the mobility protocol is configured to operate above a Host Controller Interface (“HCI”) under the Bluetooth protocol, a mobility management entity, configured to operate above the HCI, for providing a protocol independent interface between the mobility protocol and the upper layers of the Bluetooth protocol stack, wherein the upper layers operate above the HCI, and a mobility process, configured to operate below the HCI, for interfacing between the mobility management entity and the lower layers of the Bluetooth protocol stack, wherein the lower layers operate below the HCI; wherein the second base station is configured to determine that the communication link with the mobile unit is lost or cleared and provide a message to the system controller, and wherein the system controller releases the unique BD_ADDR in response to the received message.