Patent ID: 7593377

Claim:
A method in a clusterhead of a mobile ad hoc network having established a tree topology according to a mobile ad hoc network protocol, the method comprising: receiving a binding update request from a next hop mobile ad hoc router, the binding update request specifying, according to a prescribed mobile IP protocol, a home address of a mobile ad hoc router attached within the mobile ad hoc network and a corresponding care of address for reaching the mobile ad hoc router within the mobile ad hoc network; storing, by a mobile IP proxy resource within the clusterhead, the home address and the corresponding care of address in a mobile IP routing table within the clusterhead; registering, by the mobile IP proxy resource, the mobile ad hoc router with an identified home agent of the mobile ad hoc router based on sending a second binding update request to the identified home agent specifying the corresponding home address is reachable via a second care of address owned by the clusterhead, and further based on initiating a proxy to home agent tunnel with the identified home agent according to the prescribed mobile IP protocol; responding to a packet received from within the mobile ad hoc network, and that specifies a source address field specifying the home address of the mobile ad hoc router and a destination address for a destination, by initially determining by a mobile ad hoc network resource whether the destination address is reachable within the mobile ad hoc network according to the mobile ad hoc network protocol based on accessing a mobile ad hoc network routing table within the clusterhead, the mobile ad hoc network routing table specifying, for each specified address prefix assigned within the mobile ad hoc network, one of a plurality of the next hop mobile ad hoc routers for reaching the corresponding address prefix within the mobile ad hoc network; and if the destination address is determined as reachable within the mobile ad hoc network, outputting the packet by the mobile ad hoc network resource to the one next hop mobile ad hoc router identified in the mobile ad hoc network routing table as reaching the address prefix containing the destination address; if the destination address is not determined as reachable within the mobile ad hoc network, selectively outputting, by the mobile IP proxy resource, the packet to the home agent via the proxy to home agent tunnel in response to identifying the home agent from the mobile IP routing table based on the home address specified in the source address field.