Patent ID: 8520595

Claim:
A method comprising: at a first access switch in a first mobility sub-domain of a network comprising a plurality of mobility sub-domains, each mobility sub-domain comprising one or more access switches each serving one or more Internet Protocol (IP) subnets each comprising a plurality of IP addresses, detecting connection of a wireless device to the first access switch; sending an announce message from the first access switch to all other access switches in the first mobility and to a controller apparatus that is configured to control routing for the plurality of mobility sub-domains, wherein the announce message indicates detection of the wireless device by the access switch; obtaining an IP address for the wireless device according to the one or more IP subnets served by the first access switch; sending an association advertisement message from the first access switch to other access switches and routers in the first mobility sub-domain, wherein the association advertisement message is configured to indicate the IP address of the wireless device, a sequence number assigned to the first access switch, a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier, a sub-domain identifier for the sub-domain that the wireless device is currently located in, and the association of the wireless device to the first access switch to enable other access switches and routers in the first mobility sub-domain to compute a path to the wireless device by computing a path to the first access switch; establishing tunnels between tunneling end point devices in each of the plurality of mobility sub-domains; at the tunneling endpoint device in a second mobility sub-domain, sending to a tunneling endpoint device that is part of the first mobility sub-domain a notification message to indicate that the wireless device is associated with an access switch in the second mobility sub-domain; and exchanging packets with the tunneling endpoint device in the first mobility sub-domain using a tunnel between the tunneling endpoint device in the second mobility sub-domain and the tunneling endpoint device in the first mobility sub-domain in order to send network traffic targeted to the wireless device and receive network traffic from the wireless device over the tunnel.