UTILIZATION OF GRATUITOUS ADDRESS RESOLUTION PROTOCOL FOR MOBILITY SUPPORT

By employing information contained in a gratuitous address resolution protocol (ARP) message, mobile terminal registration records can be effectively and efficiently established in and removed from a network host. When a mobile terminal changes its point-of-attachment from a first network host to a second network host in a subnetwork or local area network (LAN) segment, a gratuitous ARP message is generated by the second network host, wherein the gratuitous ARP message contains an IP address associated with the mobile terminal. As the mobile terminal is no longer attached to the subnetwork or LAN segment through the first network node, the first network node, upon identifying the mobile terminal's IP address contained in the gratuitous ARP message, may undertake the task of removing any and all registration records associated with the mobile terminal, which are themselves identified by the mobile terminal's IP address, from and distinguished any other registration records being maintained by the first network node.