Patent ID: 7720031

Claim:
A method of supporting portable device mobility for layer 2 and layer 3 packets across multiple wireless access points and connection support servers on a campus, without losing session connectivity, the method including: establishing a client session between a client machine and a first connection support server at a first access point on an original VLAN, including identification of the client machine by MAC address and IP address; publishing the existence of the client session with the first connection support server to a second connection support server; wherein the connection support servers are on devices that are separate from the client machine; recognizing at the second connection support server, in a manner transparent to the client machine, that the client machine has moved its wireless connection from the first access point coupled in communication with the first connection support server to a second access point on a new VLAN coupled in communication with the second connection support server, wherein the new VLAN is different from the original VLAN; processing packets at the first or second connection support server to modify packet headers to correspond to the new VLAN to which the client machine is connected, including: for packets having the client machine as a source, at the first connection support server or the second connection support server, changing a packet header VLAN ID inside the packet headers from the new VLAN to the original VLAN in response to the recognizing that the client machine has moved its wireless connection, and recalculating at least one packet integrity code, and for packets having the client machine as a destination, at the first connection support server or the second connection support server, changing a packet header VLAN ID inside the packet headers from the original VLAN to the new VLAN in response to the recognizing that the client machine has moved its wireless connection, and recalculating at least one packet integrity code; and tunneling the modified packets between the first and second connection support servers for forwarding, without changing the IP address assigned to the client machine.