131 results about "Seamless handoff" patented technology

Methods and apparatus for providing a seamless switching of voice calls between different wireless networks are disclosed. In one illustrative example, a mobile communication device has a processor and one or more wireless transceivers coupled to the processor. The one or more wireless transceivers include a first transceiver portion operative in accordance with a first wireless network (e.g. a GSM / GPRS cellular network) and a second transceiver portion operative in accordance with a second wireless network (e.g. an 802.11 wireless network). A voice call is maintained between the mobile device and a communication terminal through call control equipment. The processor of the mobile device is operative to maintain voice communications for the voice call over a traffic channel established between the mobile device and the first wireless network using the first transceiver portion; cause a connecting call to be established with the communication terminal through the call control equipment in response to a predetermined condition, where the connecting call involves a traffic channel established between the second wireless network and the mobile device using the second transceiver portion; and after the connecting call is established, maintain voice communications for the voice call over the traffic channel established between the second wireless network and the mobile device.

An apparatus and method is provided for facilitating the seamless handoff of IP connections between access routers in an IP network. The mobile IP network includes two or more access routers each serving a different geographic service area. When a mobile terminal moves from the first service area to the second service area, the mobile terminal transmits to the second access router the IP address of the previous access router. The second access router uses this information to learn capabilities of the first access router (e.g., bandwidths supported, security schemes, and the like) for use in future handoff decisions, and exchanges capability information with the first access router. The assumption is made based on the exchanged information that the access routers are geographically proximate. When another mobile terminal transitions from one service area to another, the system selects an optimal target access router based on the previously learned information, including the inferred geographic proximity between access routers.

Mobile wireless device(s) roam within and between premises and a vehicle or other mobile platform and interface to wireless local area networks within the premises or vehicle. When using the intra-vehicular network, a communication relay within the vehicle routes communications from the wireless device to a wide area wireless network such as cellular network or satellite network. This allows the power consumption of the mobile wireless device to be greatly reduced as the mobile device need only communicate with the local intra-vehicular WLAN. The vehicle acts as the power supply for the relay. When the coverage area of the intra-vehicular WLAN overlaps that of another WLAN, seamless handoff allows continuous data or voice connectivity between the overlapping wireless networks.

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 mobile device communicates with a first mesh access point (AP) via a first radio frequency (RF) interface of the mobile device over a first wireless connection, where the first mesh AP is one of mesh APs of a first mesh cell of the wireless mesh network. It is detected that signal quality of the first wireless connection drops below a predetermined threshold as the mobile device moves from the first mesh cell towards a second mesh cell. In response to the detection, it is established via a second RF interface of the mobile device a second wireless connection with a second mesh AP of a second mesh cell of the wireless mesh network, while concurrently maintaining the first wireless connection with the first mesh AP via the first RF interface.