Patent ID: 8065432

Claim:
A method of preventing packet loss during a handoff of a network access device from a first network to a second network, the method being performed by a home agent for the network access device, comprising: forwarding from the home agent a plurality of packets destined for the network access device and sequence numbers for the plurality of packets to a current Internet protocol address for the network access device; buffering at the home agent, in a buffer the plurality of packets destined for the network access device in accordance with the sequence numbers; receiving at the home agent a last received sequence number from the network access device that was last received by the network access device after the handoff to the second network, and receiving a new internet protocol address for the network access device on the second network; and resending from the home agent packets to the network access device at the new Internet protocol address, starting with the last received sequence number from the network access device after the handoff to the second network, wherein the home agent comprises a single hardware device.