Patent ID: 8774090

Claim:
A method for detaching one of multiple connections to one or more wireless networks, comprising: communicating over a plurality of network connections that each provide access to a gateway; determining to detach at least one of the plurality of network connections; performing a handover of one or more flows related to the at least one of the plurality of network connections to a different one of the plurality of network connections; and transmitting a handover message related to performing a handover of the at least one of the plurality of network connections to the different one of the plurality of network connections instead of detaching, wherein detaching results in removal of state information at a network device and handover results in maintenance of the state information at the network device; and subsequently reattaching the at least one of the plurality of network connections, and receiving an assignment to the gateway from a state information server based at least in part on an identifier retained based at least in part on transmitting the handover message instead of detaching.