Patent ID: 8355382

Claim:
A method in a network element acting as an anchor ASN-GW (Access Service Network Gateway) for a hand-over of a mobile node within a WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) network, the method comprising the steps of: providing network connectivity to the mobile node by the anchor ASN-GW prior to the hand-over, wherein there is a line card in each of a plurality of line card slots in the network element, and only one of these line cards stores R4 session information for the mobile node at any given time, and wherein the R4 session information is information regarding an R4 session entity that represents the mobile node for a duration of the hand-over between the anchor ASN-GW and a serving ASN-GW according to WiMAX; identifying a data path in a GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation) tunnel between the anchor ASN-GW and the serving ASN-GW; receiving data of an R4 session from the serving ASN-GW through the data path in the GRE tunnel for the hand-over, wherein R4 protocol is used for ASN-GW to ASN-GW type communication; identifying a GRE key to traverse one or more of a plurality of tables, wherein the identified GRE key is used to identify the mobile node for the R4 session in the GRE tunnel for the hand-over; accessing, with the GRE key, the one or more of the plurality of tables that are indexed by GRE keys and that are stored on each of the plurality of line cards to obtain the R4 session information for the mobile node; locating that line card slot of the plurality of line card slots in the network element that contains the line card with the R4 session information as a result of the step of accessing the one or more of the plurality of tables, whereby setup of the data path in the GRE tunnel between the anchor ASN-GW and the serving ASN-GW is completed efficiently by limiting R4 session information for any given mobile node to be stored in only one of the plurality of lines cards and quickly by locating any given R4 session information through the one or more of the plurality of tables, thus minimizing data loss due to disruption of the mobile node subject to the hand-over; and completing the hand-over of the mobile node from the anchor ASN-GW to the serving ASN-GW over the GRE tunnel based on the obtained R4 session information after which IP connectivity to the mobile node is provided by the serving ASN-GW.