METHOD FOR LINK FAILURE DETECTION AND SESSION TRANSFER TO A LIVELY LINK IN THE MULTIHOMING ENVIRONMENT OF ID/LOCATOR SPLIT-BASED NETWORKS

摘要

This invention specifies mechanisms for detection of failure of links directly attached to communication devices (hosts and gateways) or lying in the path between these devices. The invention also specifies mechanisms for recovering communication sessions when the failure occurs. The failure in a link connected to the host or to the gateway is detected by using a link layer trigger by the respective node while the gateway failure or failure in a remote link is detected by a signaling mechanism initiated by the host on the basis of two control timers, probe timer and keepalive timer. The edge router and gateway also assist the host to detect the failure and quickly start the recovery process. They perform packet redirection through a lively link to the host, thus reducing or completely avoiding packet losses while the host performs the recovery mechanism to transfer the session from the failed link to the lively link.