Patent ID: 8213385

Claim:
A wireless communication apparatus comprising: a first router configured to facilitate a hand-off of a wireless communication within a private network or from one private network to another private network, the communication conducted in a first area of service between a corresponding node (CN) and a mobile node (MN) that has the first router as a home router such that at completion of the hand-off, the wireless communication is conducted in a second area of service between the CN and the MN via a second router without sending data of the wireless communication to the first router; the first router including a location table; the location table configured to store current router addresses of MNs having the first router as a home router, wherein the location table is configured as a mobile-home database (MHD) and is configured to store a data record for each MN served by the first router that has an index field for each MN, a flag for indicating a home association or a visiting association of each MN with the first router, a local address field for a current unregistered local address of the respective MN, and a router address field for an address of a home router of where the respective MN is a visiting MN; the first router configured to receive data of the wireless communication sent from the CN to the MN before the hand-off; the first router configured to obtain an IP address of the second router for the hand-off in response to the MN moving to the second area of service by receiving a message sent from the MN that contains the IP address of the second router; the first router configured to update the location table with the received IP address of the second router for the MN and to update the flag on a condition that the MN changes home association or visiting association after the hand-off; and the first router configured to forward data of the wireless communication received from the CN to the second router after the MN stops receiving data of the wireless communication from the first router and before completion of the hand-off.