Patent ID: 8451802

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at an anchor access gateway, a plurality of packets from a home agent, the packets destined for an access terminal, the anchor access gateway serving the access terminal; forwarding the packets to the access terminal; receiving, at the anchor access gateway, a handoff request from a target access gateway, the handoff request requesting a handover from the anchor access gateway to the target access gateway, the target access gateway identifies the anchor access gateway according to an anchor access gateway identifier received from the access terminal; forwarding the packets to the target access gateway in accordance with the handoff request, the forwarding the packets to the target access gateway further comprising: monitoring, by the anchor access gateway, a quality of a first connection between the access terminal and an anchor base station of the anchor access gateway; monitoring, by the anchor access gateway, a quality of a second connection between the access terminal and a target base station of the target access gateway; and forwarding, by the anchor access gateway, the packets if the quality of the second connection is greater than the quality of the first connection; monitoring packet activity between the anchor access gateway and the access terminal; in response to the monitored packet activity dropping below a predetermined threshold: instructing the target access gateway to register with the home agent; and communicating a home agent identifier to the target access gateway, the home agent identifier identifying the home agent.