METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED HANDOFF OF A MOBILE DEVICE BETWEEN WIRELESS SUBNETWORKS

摘要

Under the present invention, a method and system for improved handoff of a mobile device between wireless subnetworks is provided. Specifically, under the present invention, a mobile device will directly associate with a new access point of a new wireless subnetwork (layer 2 handoff) before associating with a agent of the new subnetwork (layer 3 handoff). Once the association with the new access point is complete, a forwarding request will be sent from the new access point to the old access point of the wireless subnetwork wit which the mobile device was previously associated. The forwarding request causes all data packets intended for the mobile device that are received by the old access point to be forwarded to the new access point. Then, once the mobile device has the completed its association with the agent of the new wireless subnetwork, the mobile device will receive data packets directly through the new subnetwork.