Patent ID: 8369357

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving an address resolution protocol (ARP) message from a base station, the ARP message sent in response to a layer 2 link indication from a mobile station; sending a mobility registration request to request registration for the mobile station; receiving a response to the mobility registration request, the response indicating an action to facilitate layer 2 network to layer 3 mobility conversion, wherein an action to facilitate layer 2 network to layer 3 mobility conversion is one of layer 2 switching a specific VLAN, and layer 3 terminating an IP address and adding an entry to a mobility binding table; and responding to the response by performing the action to facilitate the layer 2 network to layer 3 mobility conversion, wherein if the action is switching layer 2 traffic, then performing enabling layer 2 forwarding, and if the action is layer 3 terminating an IP address, then performing tagging the mobile station as layer-3 and adding the mobile station to a visited table.