Patent ID: 8775632

Claim:
A method for managing session information of an access terminal (AT) that has moved from a source subnet to a target subnet, the method comprising the steps of: performing, by the AT, a universal access terminal identifier (UATI) assignment to acquire a new UATI, when the AT moves to the target subnet with a radio link lost; requesting, by the AT, a connection setup to target packet control function (PCF) through a target access network (AN) of the target subnet; transmitting, by the target PCF, a message with information indicating authentication required and default session information; (a) acquiring, by the target AN, a hardware identifier (ID) of the AT from the AT; (b) transmitting, by the AT, a message with a prior universal access terminal identifier (UATI) to the target AN to perform session negotiation with the target AN of the target subnet; (c) transmitting, by the target AN, a message with the hardware ID and the prior UATI to a target packet control function (PCF) to request retrieval of session information of the AT; (d) sending, by the target PCF, a request for transmission of prior session information for the AT to a source PCF of the source subnet, found using the prior UATI; and (e) receiving, by the target PCF, a response having the prior session information from the source PCF and retrieving the session information of the AT using the received prior session information, wherein the step (e) comprises the steps of: receiving, by the target PCF, the response having the prior session information for the AT with a previously stored hardware ID of the AT from the source PCF; determining by the target PCF whether the two hardware IDs received in the steps (c) an (e) are identical to each other; and if the two hardware IDs are identical to each other, transmitting, by the target PCF, to the target AN a message indicating the normal retrieval of the session information of the AT; and wherein the hardware ID received from the target AN is used to identify the prior session information.