Patent ID: 7990875

Claim:
A telecommunications system for providing communications services to one or more mobile nodes via a plurality of access networks, each of the mobile nodes subscribing to a level of service quality and is affiliated with one of the access networks, the communications services are related to mobile Internet protocol and are provided within Internet protocol communications sessions having a plurality of communications session levels, each of the session levels providing different service quality thereby accommodating communications of different types of media, the system comprising: a mobility manager to receive first messages from the mobile nodes, a first message including one or more measurements providing an indication of a link quality available for a mobile node on an access network to which the mobile node is affiliated; an application server providing the communications services to the mobile nodes, the application server sending second messages to the mobility manager identifying a communications session level obtainable at the link quality available; and an access gateway included in each of the access networks for controlling access by the mobile nodes to that access network, the access gateway of each of the access networks via which the mobile nodes are communicating sending third messages to the mobility manager, the third messages providing an indication of a state of congestion of the access network with respect to a total communications bandwidth currently being used by the mobile nodes communicating via the access network in accordance with radio communications resources of a radio access interface provided by the access network currently used, wherein the mobility manager is to direct a change of access network affiliation and of the communications session level of the mobile node in accordance with one or more of the state of congestion of the access networks indicated by the third messages, the link quality currently experienced by the mobile node indicated by the first messages, the link quality indicated by the second messages, and the level of service quality to which the mobile node has subscribed.