Patent ID: 7606200

Claim:
A method of supporting media independent handover (MIH) of a mobile terminal to a heterogeneous network, the method comprising: receiving, at a media independent handover function (MIHF) of the mobile terminal from an upper entity of the mobile terminal, a first command request comprising a layer type parameter specifying a network to be scanned from a plurality of networks and an address parameter, wherein the first command request is destined to one MIHF of the mobile terminal and a remote terminal; and transmitting, from the MIHF of the mobile terminal to a lower entity of the mobile terminal when the first command request is destined to the MIHF of the mobile terminal, a second command request to command scanning the specified network, wherein the first command request is generated at the upper entity when the upper entity attempts to initiate a scanning operation at one of the lower entity of the mobile terminal and a lower entity of the remote terminal, the layer type parameter indicating a destination which the first command request is to be transmitted to, and wherein the mobile terminal is a multi-mode mobile terminal.