METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AVOIDING TCP PACKET RETRANSMISSION DURING MOBILE DEVICE HANDOFF

摘要

Under the present invention, a wireless component such as an access point or a mobile device is configured to manage the buffering of newly transmitted TCP packets. Specifically, the wireless component can receive both forwarded TCP packets and newly transmitted TCP packets. If a set of newly transmitted TCP packets is received out of order (i.e., before a set of previously transmitted TCP packets that must be forwarded), one out of order (newly transmitted) TCP packet will be passed for each of a quantity of tokens present on the wireless component. Each out of order TCP packet that is not passed will be buffered. Once a previously requested forwarded TCP packet is received and passed, the quantity of tokens is restored to a predetermined quantity, and a commensurate number of buffered TCP packets can be passed.