Patent ID: 7433338

Claim:
A method for supporting mobile devices' mobility in wireless networks, each wireless network containing a network server and at least one base station, each base station having a set of care-of addresses, a mobile device having a communication with a correspondent node, wherein the communication is based on transmitting Internet protocol packets, characterized by the steps of: at a first base station handling the communication; receiving a packet sent from the mobile device, said packet having a sender address associated therewith; replacing a home address placed in the packet's sender address with a care-of address currently allocated to the mobile device; transmitting the packet to the network server; at the network server, replacing the care-of address placed in the packet's sender address with the home address, and when the mobile device is located in its home network; transmitting the packet to the correspondent node; receiving a response packet as response to the transmitted packet, said response packet having a receiver address associated therewith; replacing a home address placed in the response packet's receiver address with the care-of address; transmitting the response packet to the first base station; at the first base station: replacing the care-of address placed in the response packet's receiver address with the home address; transmitting the response packet to the mobile device, thus enabling the communication between the mobile device and the correspondent node; at a second base station receiving the mobile device via a handoff; obtaining a mobile device indentifier from the mobile device; transmitting the mobile device indentifier to the network server; at the network server obtaining a home address of the mobile device having the mobile device indentifier; allocating a second care-of address to the mobile device; storing the home address and the second care-of address; sending the home address and the second care-of address to the second base station; and, at the second base station, storing the home address and the second care-of address sent.