SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FAIL-SAFE OPERATION OF A VIRTUAL HOME AGENT FOR MOBILE IP

摘要

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for a distributed virtual home agent. One embodiment of the method includes implementing a first primary home agent on a first portion of a plurality of hardware elements that operate according to a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) and a second primary home agent on a second portion of the plurality of hardware elements. A first backup home agent is implemented on the second portion of the plurality of hardware elements and a second backup home agent is implemented on the first portion of the plurality of hardware elements. Packets addressed to the first or second primary home agent can be directed to both the first and second portions of the plurality of hardware elements so that states of the first and second backup home agents mirror states of the first and second primary home agents, respectively. When the primary home agent has failed, users associated with this home agent may then be handed off to the associated backup home agent.