Patent ID: 8451799

Claim:
A zone switching method, comprising: performing, by a mixed-mode mobile station, a handover from a legacy frame structure of a legacy base station to a 802.16e zone of a mixed-mode frame structure of the mixed-mode base station, wherein the legacy base station supports an 802.16e standard and the mixed-mode base station supports both 802.16e and 802.16m standards; causing, by the mixed-mode mobile station, an anchor authenticator to be relocated from a legacy access service network gateway to a mixed-mode access service network gateway, wherein the legacy access service network gateway supports the 802.16e standard and the mixed-mode access service network gateway supports both 802.16e and 802.16m standards; performing, by the mixed-mode mobile station, a security update, resulting in a mixed-mode security context for operating in an 802.16m zone of the mixed-mode frame structure of the mixed-mode base station, the security update further comprising: allowing a zone switching action time to elapse; performing a key agreement, an authentication, or a re-authentication in the 802.16m zone, wherein data communication with the mixed-mode base station in the 802.16e zone is not interrupted; performing additional re-entry procedures in the 802.16m zone, wherein data communication with the mixed-mode base station in the 802.16e zone is not interrupted; and switching to communication in the 802.16m zone by the mixed-mode base station once the re-entry procedures are complete; and switching, by the mixed-mode mobile station, from the 802.16e zone of the mixed-mode frame structure to the 802.16m zone of the mixed-mode frame structure; wherein data communication using the 802.16e zone is not disrupted during the above operations.