Patent ID: 7343158

Claim:
A mobile IP network, comprising: a home authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server for receiving authentication requests and for generating authentication responses; a configured home agent (HA); a mobile terminal for connecting to the mobile IP network by way of the configured HA; a local AAA server for communicating with the home AAA server to authenticate the mobile terminal seeking access to the mobile IP network by way of the configured HA, the local AAA server coupled to the communicate with the configured HA and with the home AAA server; a provisioning server coupled to provide preferred HA addresses for a group of mobile terminals to the home AAA server; and wherein: the mobile terminal specifies the configured home agent when seeking access to the mobile IP network through an access point, the configured home agent address being stored within the mobile terminal; the home AAA server, responsive to having received the preferred HA addresses for the group of mobile terminals including the mobile terminal, sends an authentication response to the local AAA server, the authentication response including the preferred HA address for the mobile terminal; and the local AAA server, responsive to receiving the authentication response from the home AAA server, generates an authentication failure message to the mobile terminal, the authentication failure message including the preferred HA address.