Patent ID: 7813267

Claim:
A method of providing continuous data forwarding during a failure mode in a wireless data network, comprising: establishing one or more tunneled data paths in the wireless data network, each of the one or more tunneled data paths extending between one of a plurality of access points of the wireless data network and a data plane management component of a network switch, each of the one or more tunneled data paths configured to carry data traffic from one or more mobile nodes communicating with the respective access point; detecting a failure of a control plane module of the network switch, the control plane module coupled to the data plane management component of the network switch and to the access points, and configured to handle authentication of the mobile nodes to the wireless data network; maintaining by the data plane management component and each access point the one or more tunneled data paths for use by mobile nodes that were authenticated to the wireless data network prior to the failure of the control plane module of the network switch; detecting a recovery of the control plane module of the network switch; and re-authenticating one or more mobile nodes following the recovery of the control plane module, wherein the re-authentication of the one or more mobile nodes occurs based on one or more predetermined parameters at the access points that provide for a balanced re-authentication among the one or more mobile nodes.