Fast handovers and context transfers in mobile networks

We describe recent work enabling fast handovers and context transfer between access routers offering Internet connectivity for mobile (often wireless) nodes. We present our framework for engineering general context transfer solutions, and a protocol which uses the framework to provide a simple yet general mechanism for carrying out context transfers during handovers. Since our mechanism operates at the network level, we expect that it will be the most expedient way to provide for seamless handovers between heterogeneous networks. We report our results which show that fast handovers with context transfer at the network layer can support uninterrupted voice over IP (VoIP). Thus, our context transfer framework will catalyze the arrival of a unified wireless telecommunications network, with voice and data connectivity anytime, anywhere. Towards that end, we describe how our results and context transfer framework relate to other work within the IETF.