Patent ID: 7120136

Claim:
A method of facilitating mobility of a mobile station in a wireless local area network (WLAN) comprising; associating a mobile node Internet Protocol (MNIP) address with the mobile station; establishing a first communications link between the mobile station and a first WLAN access point (AP) in a first subnet; associating to the first AP in the first subnet, associating a first WLAN Internet Protocol (WLAN IP) address with the mobile station, and using the first WLAN IP address for an application that benefits from a persistent connection; establishing a second communications link between the mobile station and a second WLAN AP in a second subnet; when the mobile station is using the application that benefits from a persistent connection, continuing to use the first WLAN IP address without another address being assigned to the mobile station for communicating with the second subnet for the duration of the persistent connection; and requesting a second WLAN IP address in the second subnet when the persistent connection is no longer needed.