A METHOD AND A NETWORK NODE FOR MANAGING HANDOVERS IN A PACKET DATA COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT

摘要

The invention deals with managing handovers between access networks in a packet data communication environment. According to the invention, the possibility to control access network resources will improve by having a mobility manager node (160) managing such handovers. The mobility manager node will decide to handover a mobile node (105) from a first access network (110) to a second access network (120) based on received information relevant to the handover process. After the decision, the mobility manager node will instruct a home agent (141) or similar node to register a new care-of address or other locator of the mobile node's point of attachment, which is valid in the second access network and which can be used for contacting the mobile node in the second access network. The mobility manager node will thereafter instruct the mobile node to de-attach from the first network and attach to the second network. The invention will be especially advantageous for mobile operators managing a communication environment with heterogeneous networks, such as WLAN and WCDMA networks.