Patent ID: 7668545

Claim:
A method for enabling data connectivity for a device tethered to an access terminal when a handoff of the access terminal occurs between a first network element and a second network element, the method performed by the access terminal and comprising: determining, by an access terminal, that a tethered device is in a communication session having a compression state negotiated with a first network element; identifying a handoff of the communication session from the first network element to a second network element; determining that the second network element is not enabled for the compression state; initiating a forward compression trigger message based on determining that the second network element is not enabled for the compression state; sending the forward compression trigger message to the tethered device; relaying a reverse compression request message received from the tethered device, in response to the forward compression trigger message, to the second network element; relaying a forward rejection message received from the second network element, in response to the reverse compression request message, to the tethered device, wherein the forward rejection message is operable to change the compression state of the tethered device; and receiving uncompressed data packets from the tethered device destined for the second network element, wherein the uncompressed data packets are generated by the tethered device based on the forward rejection message.