A computer protocol that manages and provides efficient communications and utilization of resources between a mobile computer system or device and other systems and devices. Each home agent maintains a home agent list containing information about each of the home agents coupled to the home link. A designated home agent on behalf of the home agents for a virtual home agent is used to send and broadcast home agent advertisement, to receive and process a request from a mobile node, to process and send a reply to the mobile node. Synchronization mechanisms or tools, such as home agent priority or floating token method, are provided for proper operation of a Virtual Distribution Home Agent Protocol (VDHAP). These mechanisms or tools are used to fairly distribute loads from the mobile node among the home agents within the virtual home agent.

The present invention provides a method, apparatus and computer product for a mobile device to roam securely and seamlessly from one access point to another access point without disrupting an active PPP connection. The method includes establishing, maintaining, and terminating a PPP connection between a mobile device and a PPP server via an access point, wherein the mobile device is equipped with a serial asynchronous communication interface. The PPP server is attached to a packet switched data network, and the access point is acting as a bridge between the serial communication interface and the packet switched communication interface. Also provided is a method to emulate a direct RS-232 cable connection between a mobile device and another computer located several hops away from the mobile device. It provides a method of keeping the RS-232 cable emulation between the mobile device an another computer system intact despite changes in mobile device's location in the network. It also provides a method of exchanging cookies between peers at the PPP connection establishment time and using them for fast reauthentication. This is a secure method of switching from one PPP proxy to another PPP proxy without disrupting the end to end PPP connection.

This is a method and system to efficiently do handovers for mobile IP. The mobile node registers itself with several foreign agents using a new registration type. Only one of the foreign agents is selected to forward the data packets of a data message to the mobile node. The selection algorithm may be one based on randomness, dynamic learning, message traffic congestion, or statistical information collected at the mobile node.

Methods and apparatus for enabling intra-agent mobility by a mobile node are disclosed, thereby permitting a mobile node to register with a Home Agent via a Foreign Agent where the Home Agent and the Foreign Agent are provided in the same router. A method of registering a mobile node visiting a Foreign Agent with a Home Agent includes receiving a registration request packet specifying a Home Address and a care-of address. It is then determined whether the Home Address specified in the registration request packet is equivalent to a Home Agent address associated with the router. In addition, it may be determined whether the care-of address specified in the registration request packet is equivalent to a Foreign Agent address advertised by the router. Alternatively, it may be determined whether the D bit specified in the registration request packet is set and the care-of address specified in the registration request packet is a collocated care-of address. The mobile node may then be registered with the Home Agent through the use of a physical interface on the router rather than creating or specifying a tunnel interface to reach the mobile node or the Home Agent.