Seamless roaming across wireless subnets using source address forwarding
US8018900B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 28, 2006 |
| Grant date | Sep 13, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 9, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W80/04
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
To enable devices to detect L3 roaming users and to take appropriate forwarding actions, L3 knowledge is introduced inside a bridge in a non-intrusive way. In particular, as a client moves from a subnet associated with a first network element to a subnet associated with a second network element, a determination is made regarding whether the client is roaming. This is done by evaluating a source IP address within a L3 packet header within a first frame received at the second network element. If, as a result of the evaluating step, it is determined that the client is roaming, an L2 bridge forwarding table in the second network element is configured to include a source MAC address of the client together with information identifying at least a destination interface for use in directing client data traffic back towards the subnet associated with the first network element. The first frame is then forwarded. In one embodiment, the traffic is directed back towards the subnet associated with the first network element via a GRE encapsulation tunnel, although any convenient tunneling mechanism can be used. According to another feature, given information cached at the foreign access point is u…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.