Patent ID: 7587498

Claim:
A network device adapted for distributing a Mobile IP registration request to one of a plurality of Home Agents, comprising: a processor; and a memory, at least one of the processor or the memory being adapted for: receiving a registration request from a Foreign Agent to which the Mobile Node has roamed; determining whether a binding for the Mobile Node exists in a list of temporary bindings; if a binding for the Mobile Node is determined to exist in the list of temporary bindings, forwarding the registration request to the one of the plurality of Home Agents identified in the binding; if it is determined that a binding for the Mobile Node does not exist in the list of temporary bindings, selecting one of the plurality of Home Agents to be an active Home Agent to which the registration request is to be forwarded, wherein an IP address associated with the selected one of the plurality of Home Agents has not previously been configured on the Mobile Node as a Home Agent of the Mobile Node, wherein the registration request that has been received does not identify the selected one of the plurality of Home Agents; sending the registration request to the selected one of the plurality of Home Agents, the source IP address of the registration request being an IP address of the Foreign Agent to which the Mobile Node has roamed, thereby enabling the selected one of the plurality of Home Agents to send a Mobile IP registration reply directly to the Foreign Agent without interception by the network device, wherein the network device is not one of the plurality of Home Agents; and creating a binding associated with the Mobile Node in the list of temporary bindings, wherein the binding associated with the Mobile Node in the list of temporary bindings indicates that a registration request has been sent to the one of the plurality of Home Agents.