106 results about "Media-independent handover" patented technology

In a telecommunications network in which a mobile handset is capable of communicating in both an IP-domain and a non-IP domain, the handoff of an existing communications session between the mobile handset and a fixed user is facilitated by a handoff controller implemented in a service control point. The handoff controller implements different handoff methods depending on the status of the fixed user and the transition of the mobile user. Additionally 802.21 Media Independent Handover Function in conjunction with SIP is used to facilitate handover between IP and Non-IP points in the system.

An apparatus for providing security to media independent handover service includes a point of service for providing the media independent handover services including an independent authenticator. The independent authenticator authenticates candidate access networks prior to the handover of the mobile devices from serving access networks to the candidate access networks, where each of the serving access networks and the candidate access networks belong to a plurality of heterogeneous access networks having the specific serving media. An access controller applies an access control through an access authentication with the point of service providing the media independent handover services through an authentication server, in which when the access authentication is established between the point of service and the authentication server, the mobile devices are authorized to access the media independent handover services through the point of service for the mobile devices attached between heterogeneous media.

The present invention relates to supporting media independent handover of a mobile terminal to a heterogeneous network. Preferably, the present invention establishes a unified interface to an upper layer of the mobile terminal for managing messages to and from at least one of a homogeneous network and a neterogeneous network. Furthermore, the present invention requests a scan of a heterogeneous network different from a current network of the mobile terminal via the unified interface to determine the presence of an accessible link of the heterogeneous network for performing the handover.

A media-independent handover key management architecture is disclosed that uses Kerberos for secure key distribution among a server, an authenticator, and a mobile node. In the preferred embodiments, signaling for key distribution is based on re-keying and is decoupled from re-authentication that requires EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) and AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) signaling similar to initial network access authentication. In this framework, the mobile node is able to obtain master session keys required for dynamically establishing the security associations with a set of authenticators without communicating with them before handover. By separating re-key operation from re-authentication, the proposed architecture is more optimized for a proactive mode of operation. It can also be optimized for reactive mode of operation by reversing the key distribution roles between the mobile node and the target access node.

In a telecommunications network in which a mobile handset is capable of communicating in both an IP domain and a non-IP domain, the handoff of an existing communications session between the mobile handset and a fixed user is facilitated by a handoff controller implemented in a service control point. The handoff controller implements different handoff methods depending on the status of the fixed user and the transition of the mobile user. Additionally 802.21 Media Independent Handover Function in conjunction with SIP is used to facilitate handover between IP and Non-IP points in the system.

A method of performing handover with at least one homogeneous and heterogeneous network is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes mobile station (MS) which establishes a heterogeneous network handover module for converging information from the at least one network interface module associated with the at least one of a homogeneous and heterogeneous network into a unified presentation; transmits to the heterogeneous network handover module of a serving network a handover request message to initiate handover from a serving network to a target network, wherein the handover request message is configured by the heterogeneous network handover module of a mobile station (MS); receives a handover confirmation message in response to the handover request message from the heterogeneous network handover module of the serving network; transmits a handover commit request message to the heterogeneous network handover module of a serving network, wherein the handover commit request message includes at least one target network information and includes the request to retain resources of the MS; and receives a handover commit confirmation message from the heterogeneous network handover module of the serving network, wherein the handover commit confirmation message includes a response to the request to retain resources of the MS.

The present invention relates to link layer status information using a media independent handover module in a mobile communication system, wherein packet loss attributed to congestion can be identified from packet loss attributed to non-congestion. Preferably, the present invention comprises establishing communication between a mobile terminal and at least one of a homogeneous and heterogeneous network, reporting status information of a radio link connecting the mobile terminal and the at least one of a homogeneous and heterogeneous network to a heterogeneous network handover module of the mobile terminal, and reporting the status information of the radio link from the heterogeneous network handover module to an upper management entity of the mobile terminal if the heterogeneous network handover module determines a predetermined condition is satisfied.

The present invention relates to a mobile terminal for performing a handover to at least one of a homogeneous and heterogeneous network. Accordingly, media independent handover (MIH) is supported, by which a delay attributed to the occurrence of processing during handover between heterogeneous media-independent networks is reduced. Preferably, the present invention comprises at least one network interface module supporting a predetermined air interface, a heterogeneous network handover module configured to provide convergence of information from the at least one network interface module associated with the at least one of a homogeneous and heterogeneous network into a unified presentation, and a management module configured to process the unified presentation communicated with the heterogeneous network handover module to communicate with the at least one network interface module to facilitate handover.

An apparatus and method for enhanced heterogeneous network handover using a media independent handover scheme is provided. A heterogeneous network handover method of the present invention includes generating, at a mobile node, self-location information, transmitting the self-location information to a management server which manages heterogeneous networks, searching, at the management server, surrounding networks using the self-location information, composing a set of candidate networks including at least one of the surrounding networks, transmitting information on the set of candidate networks to mobile node and deciding, at the mobile node, a target handover network among the candidate networks. Accordingly, latency during handover in a heterogeneous network can be reduced.

A gateway system for implementing access to various media is provided in the invention, and the gateway system includes: a communication media access module, for establishing a communication link with the corresponding media access network; a Media Independent Handover Functions module, for seamless handover between accesses to various media; and a handover decision module, for selecting a target network for the seamless handover. The gateway system may also include an authentication module, for sharing the authentication information of the User Equipment. Two methods for implementing access to various media are further disclosed in the invention. By the provided gateway system and methods, the User Equipment can access various media via the gateway system, seamlessly hand over between accesses to various media and achieve the access to a service network using the shared authentication information.

A method of employing an encoding scheme for media independent handover, comprising: having at least some data type carry only required information to determine the end of data without a length value

The present invention provides a media independent information service (MIIS) for media independent handover (MIH) in a broadband wireless access system. A first lower entity of a mobile station receives a MIH information request primitive requesting a set of information elements provided by the MIIS from a first upper entity of the mobile station. An MIH information request message including an information query list to retrieve the set of information elements is transmitted from the first lower entity to a second lower entity of a base station. An MIH information response message including the set of information elements is received by the first lower entity from the second lower entity in response to the MIH information request message. An MIH information confirmation primitive including the set of information elements is then transmitted from the first lower entity to the first upper entity. The set of information elements includes at least a channel IE representing channel information of a point of attachment (PoA), a quality of service (QoS) IE associated with a QoS level provided by the PoA, or a data rate IE associated with a data transport speed at the PoA.

Provided is a method and apparatus for decreasing a handover latency time using a context exchange between a mobile terminal (MT) and a Media Independent Handover Server (MIHS). The method used by the MT for decreasing handover latency between a first network and a second network includes when a handover is performed from the first network to the second network, transmitting to the MIHS information required for first network communication as context; and when a handover is performed from the second network to the first network, receiving from the MIHS first network access information comprising the context through the currently used second network. Accordingly, the MT can reduce a Vertical Handover (VHO) latency time and simultaneously consume almost the same power as a single mode terminal.

The present invention relates to supporting media independent handover of a mobile terminal to a heterogeneous network. Preferably, the present invention establishes a unified interface to an upper layer of the mobile terminal for managing messages to and from at least one of a homogeneous network and a heterogeneous network. Furthermore, the present invention requests a scan of a heterogeneous network different from a current network of the mobile terminal via the unified interface to determine the presence of an accessible link of the heterogeneous network for performing the handover.

An apparatus and method relates to transmission of media independent (MIH) handover protocol information, the access point includes a wired interface module to receive, through a wired network, indication information indicating whether an access point that manages a neighboring heterogeneous subnet supports a protocol to conduct a media independent handover (MIH), a storage module to store the received indication information, a frame generating module to generate a frame including the stored indication information, and a wireless interface module to transmit the generated frame to a mobile node.

A media-independent handover key management architecture is disclosed that uses Kerberos for secure key distribution among a server, an authenticator, and a mobile node. In the preferred embodiments, signaling for key distribution is based on re-keying and is decoupled from re-authentication that requires EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) and AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) signaling similar to initial network access authentication. In this framework, the mobile node is able to obtain master session keys required for dynamically establishing the security associations with a set of authenticators without communicating with them before handover. By separating re-key operation from re-authentication, the proposed architecture is more optimized for a proactive mode of operation. It can also be optimized for reactive mode of operation by reversing the key distribution roles between the mobile node and the target access node.

A vertical handover (VHO) method of a media independent handover (MIH) server includes: searching for a second communication network appropriate for a requested VHO, and transmitting MIH terminal information to the second communication network when the VHO is requested from a predetermined MIH terminal connected to a first communication network; requesting the MIH terminal perform the VHO to the second communication network; and transmitting temporary channel information of the second communication network, received from the second communication network, to the MIH terminal, and controlling a temporary channel connection between the MIH terminal and the second communication network.

A method of performing a vertical handover between different wireless networks based on media independent handover (MIH) includes the steps of checking a link state of the first network to transmit a handover notify message from the mobile node to an old access router when a handover is needed, and transmitting a handover request message from the old access router to a new access router to form a tunnel to exit toward the old access router. Thereafter, packets to be transmitted to the mobile node through the first network are buffered in the old access router. After changing the wireless service from the first network to the second network the mobile node, the packets buffered in the old access router is then transmitted to the new access router, and the mobile node receives the packets through the second network.

A system for proactively authenticating includes a server having media independent access functions including media independent authentication functions that authenticates other entities attached via an interface to an end of a link specific to a media. A plurality of heterogeneous networks each having media specific access functions including authentication functions corresponding to the other entities attached via the interface to the end of the link specific to the media and mobile devices connected to the plurality of heterogeneous networks, and the server having predefined media independent handover protocols and media independent handover identities based on the media independent functions related to handover, in which the server authenticates candidate access networks prior to the handover of the mobile devices from serving access networks to the candidate access networks each of which belonging to the plurality of heterogeneous access networks having the link specific to the media.

The present invention relates to performing handover of a mobile terminal to a network. Preferably, the present invention generates a first heterogeneous protocol message from a heterogeneous network handover module to a medium access control (MAC) of the mobile terminal, wherein the heterogeneous network handover module is configured to provide convergence of information from at least one network interface module associated with one of a homogeneous and heterogeneous network into a unified presentation. A management request associated with a handover process is then transmitted to a serving network, wherein the management request comprises the first heterogeneous protocol message. Accordingly, messages can be remotely exchanged via a radio section between heterogeneous network handover modules of a mobile terminal and a serving network. Therefore, messages are transferred faster and media independent handover is performed more quickly.

The invention relates to a vertical handover technology in a heterogeneous wireless network in the field of communication, and discloses an IEEE802.21 media independent handover (MIH)-assisted quick handover mechanism in uplink vertical handover of a heterogeneous network and an L2 triggering time determining method. Based on signaling interaction of an IEEE802.21 MIH entity, a media independent handover function (MIHF) module provides link layer intelligence and neighbor network information for a high layer; an auxiliary mobile node determines a handover target network, and determines a quick mobile IPL2 triggering moment according to the smoothed received signal intensity; and configuration operation of related three layers is completed before L2 handover, so that handover time delay in vertical handover is effectively reduced and the performance of the system is improved.

A method and apparatus for registering a Media Independent Handover (MIH) is provided. An MIH registration method includes transmitting, by a serving network, an MIH registration request of the serving network to at least one candidate network when an MIH registration request is received from a mobile terminal, the at least one candidate network corresponding to the serving network, receiving, by the serving network, a response to the MIH registration request of the serving network from each of the at least one candidate network, and transmitting, by the serving network, a response to the MIH registration request of the mobile terminal to the mobile terminal.

Methods and mechanisms enhance heterogeneous media independent handover (MIH) between different link layer technologies. Embodiments include using an MIH proxy entity, MIH capable network controller,and an MIH server. Enhancements are made to the query phase, preparation phase, execution phase and completion phase by including required information in MIH messages.

According to some of the preferred embodiments, a solution framework is employed that includes defining of a mechanism to run multiple queries in a single message exchange along with a priority on a per-query basis, In some embodiments, a system for facilitating handover of a mobile device across heterogeneous access networks by ensuring response to queries transmitted by the mobile device includes: a) a mobile device having a plurality of wireless network interfaces for communicating over a plurality of heterogeneous access networks, having a media independent handover (MIH) entity to facilitate handovers between the heterogeneous networks, and configured to transmit queries related to handover operation between the heterogeneous access networks to MIH entities within said heterogeneous access networks; and b) said media independent handover entity of said mobile device being configured to transmit multiple queries in a single message exchange to an MIH entity in an access network with prioritization among said multiple queries.

A system for media independent handover using a session identifier in which a session identifier is used for identifying a media independent handover registration session across different MIH transport instances between a pair of communicating MIHFs. A point of service maintains a single registration state for a mobile node across the multiple transport instances. A session identifier is assigned by a point of service at the time of initial registration, and is valid only during the lifetime of the registration. A registration state includes local handles to transport instances that are used when sending and receiving media independent handover messages related to the registration.

A service providing method and apparatus provides a service for a media independent handover (MIH). A first node receives a first message from a second node, the first message including information about whether the second node supports a service through first layer and whether the second node supports a service through second layer, and the first node selects a service transport layer for providing a service from the first and second layers and provides a service to the second node through the service transport layer. Accordingly, the first node may effectively perform an MIH because it may easily understand the MIH capability of the second node.

The invention discloses a heterogeneous network selection system and method based on business type weight differentiation, relates to the field of heterogeneous network selection, and aims to solve the problems that the lowest QoS (quality of service) threshold values of business requirements are not different, and network utilization rate is reduced and the quality of service is weakened as loads between networks are unbalanced. The heterogeneous network selection system comprises a network discovery and static information collection module (1), a candidate network QoS parameter value acquisition module (2) and a candidate network evaluation and selection module (3). The method particularly includes the steps: firstly, finding adjacent RANs (radio access networks), collecting static information of the adjacent RANs and storing the static information in a database by an MIHF (media independent handover function); secondly, bringing the detected adjacent RANs positioned on a communication threshold value into a candidate network rank, and collecting QoS parameter values of the candidate network rank; thirdly, selecting a candidate network with the largest ideal approximation value to serve as a target network.

Currently, the I.E.E.E. 802.21 specification allows multiple MIH (Media-Independent Handover) Users in a single MIH Function. However, the specification is not clear about how multiple MIH Users are supported by a single MIHF (MIH Function) under a constraint in which if there is only one MIH User is allowed to change the state of a particular link during a particular period of time. This document proposes a detailed architecture which allows for the co-existence of multiple MIH Users by introducing a link ownership scheme in the MIHF (MIH Function). The proposed link ownership scheme also supports the scenario in which the state of a link of a mobile node is changed by a network node by modifying the MIH_Register primitives in the I.E.E.E. 802.21 specification to signal the set of allocated links to a remote MIH User on the network node. The modification of MIH_Register primitive also has the added benefit of allowing the network node to subscribe to events on a specific set of links present in the mobile node as opposed to not knowing any of the links at all.