Mobility Management of Wireless Networks Based on Multipath Transfer Control Protocol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016183129-A1
Application number	US-201414576630-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 19, 2014
Priority date	Dec 19, 2014
Publication date	Jun 23, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Mobile management in a cellular network utilizes the multipath-transfer control protocol (MP-TCP). A mobile device establishes a first multipath-transfer control protocol (MP-TCP) subflow to a corresponding node using a first internet protocol (IP) address corresponding to the mobile device. At least a portion of the first IP address is uniquely associated with the first coverage area. The mobile device establishes a second MP-TCP subflow using a second IP address corresponding to the mobile device while the mobile device is in an overlapped coverage area including a first portion of the first coverage area and a second portion of a second coverage area. At least a portion of the second IP address is uniquely associated with the second coverage area. The mobile node turns off the first subflow when the mobile node determines it has left the first coverage area.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
establishing a first multipath-transfer control protocol (MP-TCP) subflow to a corresponding node from a mobile device using a first internet protocol (IP) address corresponding to the mobile device in a first coverage area served by first cell site equipment; and establishing a second MP-TCP subflow using a second IP address corresponding to the mobile device while the mobile device is in an overlapped coverage area including a first portion of the first coverage area and a second portion of a second coverage area served by second cell site equipment.

2 . The method as recited in claim 1 comprising receiving at the mobile device in the first coverage area served by the first cell site equipment the first internet protocol (IP) address assigned by the first cell site equipment.

3 . The method as recited in claim 1 comprising receiving at the mobile device in the second coverage area served by the second cell site equipment the second internet protocol (IP) address assigned by the first cell site equipment.

4 . The method as recited in claim 1 comprising:
the mobile device receiving a first prefix corresponding to the first coverage area sent by the first cell site equipment; and
the mobile device determining the first IP address based on the first prefix and an identifier associated with the mobile device.

5 . The method as recited in claim 4 comprising:
the mobile device receiving a second prefix corresponding to the second coverage area sent by the second cell site equipment; and
the mobile device determining the second IP address based on the second prefix and the identifier associated with the mobile device.

6 . The method as recited in claim 1 comprising maintaining the first MP-TCP subflow after the second MP-TCP subflow has been established while in the overlapped coverage area.

7 . The method as recited in claim 1 comprising closing the first MP-TCP subflow according to a determination of the mobile device.

8 . The method as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:
the mobile device making the determination to close the first MP-TCP subflow based on a signal strength of a transmission from the first cell site equipment being below a threshold.

9 . The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
wherein the first IP address has a first prefix unique to the first coverage area and the second IP address has a second prefix unique to the second coverage area.

10 . The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing the first and second subflows to the corresponding node through an MP-TCP proxy.

11 . The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:
the first cell site equipment assigning the first internet protocol (IP) address, the first IP address having a portion of the first IP address being unique to the first coverage area; and
the second cell site equipment assigning the second internet protocol (IP) address, the second IP address having a portion of the second IP address being unique to the second coverage area.

12 . The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first MP-TCP subflow established through the first cell site equipment; and wherein the second MP-TCP subflow is established through the second cell site equipment.

13 . The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:
the mobile station entering a third coverage area of another radio access technology;
the mobile station receiving a third internet address assigned by an access point serving for the third coverage area;
the mobile station establishing a third subflow to the corresponding node using the other radio access technology.

14 . A mobile device comprising:
multipath transfer control protocol (MP-TCP) processing logic responsive to a request for a TCP-IP connection to establish a first multipath-transfer control protocol (MP-TCP) subflow to a corresponding node using a first IP address associated with a first cell site equipment while the mobile device is in a first coverage area served by the first cell site equipment; and the MP-TCP processing logic responsive to the mobile device being in an overlapped coverage area between the first coverage area served by the first cell site equipment and a second coverage area served by a second cell site equipment, to cause the mobile device to establish a second MP-TCP subflow using a second IP address associated with the second cell site equipment.

15 . The mobile device as recited in claim 14 wherein the MP-TCP processing logic is responsive to a threshold determination associated with a signal transmitted by the first cell site equipment to close the first MP-TCP subflow.

16 . The mobile device as recited in claim 14 wherein the mobile device receives at least a portion of the first internet protocol (IP) address from the first cell site equipment, the first IP address being unique to the first coverage area; and
wherein the mobile device receives at least a portion of the second interact protocol (IP) address from the second cell site equipment, the second IP address being unique to the second coverage area.

17 . The mobile device as recited in claim 14 wherein the first IP address is formed by the mobile device based on a first prefix received over a first control channel from the first cell site equipment and wherein the second IP address is formed by the mobile device based on a second prefix received over a second control channel from the second cell site equipment.

18 . The mobile device as recited in claim 14 wherein the first IP address and second IP address are formed utilizing an identifier [MAC address] unique to the mobile device.

19 . A method comprising:
establishing a first multipath-transfer control protocol (MP-TCP) subflow to a corresponding node from a mobile device in a first coverage area using a first IP address associated with the coverage area; and the mobile device establishing a second MP-TCP subflow to the corresponding node using a second IP address associated with a second coverage area in response to the mobile device moving to an overlapped coverage area between the first coverage area and the second coverage area.

20 . The method as recited in claim 19 further comprising:
receiving the first IP address from first cell site equipment serving the first coverage area; and
receiving the second IP address from second cell site equipment serving the second coverage area.

21 . The method as recited in claim 19 further comprising:
the mobile device receiving a first prefix associated with the first coverage area over a first control channel in the first coverage area;
the mobile device forming the first IP address using the first prefix and using a media access control (MAC) address associated with the mobile device;
the mobile device receiving a second prefix associated with the second coverage area over a second control channel in the second coverage area; and
the mobile device forming the second IP address using the second prefix and the MAC address.

22 . A computer readable storage comprising computer-executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations to:
establish a first multipath-transfer control protocol (MP-TCP) subflow to a corresponding node from the mobile device in a first coverage area using a first IP address associated with the coverage area; and to establish a second MP-TCP subflow to

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Liu Cheng
• Cui Zhi
• Fung Liza
• Pandey Vinod
• Smith Jr Paul E

Classifications

• H04W36/0005 Primary

  Control or signalling for completing the hand-off · CPC title

• H04W76/12

  Setup of transport tunnels · CPC title

• H04W36/0027

  for a plurality of data sessions of end-to-end connections, e.g. multi-call or multi-bearer end-to-end data connections · CPC title

• H04W76/15 Primary

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04W80/06

  Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless {(transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16)} · CPC title