Patent ID: 8068460

Claim:
A method of handing off without packet loss, a mobile device traveling along a series of neighboring networks, comprising: providing a per-mobile packet buffer at, at least one of an access router, a network node near the edge of the network from which the mobile device is moving away, a network node near the edge of the network that the mobile device is moving towards, a mobile node and a correspondent node, said mobile device encountering a period during which there is no network connectivity when moving from one network to another, and said per-mobile packet buffer forwarding buffered packets to and/or from said mobile device when the handoff process is completed, wherein a protocol used for buffering control of the buffered packets is defined as a separate buffering protocol independent from and not tied to employed mobility management protocol to limit the buffered packets at the per-mobile packet buffer, said buffering protocol being configured to define buffering sessions with mobile node identification of buffering period and buffering data, said buffering protocol employing communications between the mobile device and the per-mobile packet buffer and not employing communications between an access router of the network the mobile device is moving away from and an access router of the network the mobile device is moving towards, and said buffer control protocol working along with any employed mobility management protocol by the buffer control protocol including a mechanism for the mobile device to include its current care of address (CoA) in a buffer protocol message to the per-mobile packet buffer.