Patent ID: 7848329

Claim:
A method comprising: establishing a communication path between a mobile node and a first label edge router; establishing a first label switched path between the first label edge router and a first area label edge router; establishing a second label switched path between a second label edge router and a second area label edge router; establishing a third label switched path between the first area label edge router and the second area label edge router; establishing communication between the mobile node and a corresponding node over the first label switched path, the second label switched path, and the third label switched path; and maintaining the communication between the mobile node and the corresponding node when the mobile node moves from one physical location to another physical location, wherein the maintaining the communication includes: performing a handoff when the mobile node moves from within a first cell in a first region to within a second cell in a second region, the first region and the second region being in an area covered by the first area label edge router, wherein the performing the handoff includes: establishing a fourth label switched path between a third label edge router that covers the second region and the first area label edge router, the first area label edge router aggregating the first label edge router and the third label edge router, and wherein the establishing the fourth label switched path includes: registering the mobile node at the third label edge router; creating a new mobility binding for the mobile node at the third label edge router; and updating the first area label edge router with the new mobility binding from the third label edge router via an internal update, wherein the registering includes creating, at the third label edge router, a new mobility binding that associates a mobility label and an area identifier (ID), the area ID including a number associated with a geographical area.