ARCHITECTURE FOR MULTIPLE MIH USERS

Currently, the I.E.E.E. 802.21 specification allows multiple MIH (Media-Independent Handover) Users in a single MIH Function. However, the specification is not clear about how multiple MIH Users are supported by a single MIHF (MIH Function) under a constraint in which if there is only one MIH User is allowed to change the state of a particular link during a particular period of time. This document proposes a detailed architecture which allows for the co-existence of multiple MIH Users by introducing a link ownership scheme in the MIHF (MIH Function). The proposed link ownership scheme also supports the scenario in which the state of a link of a mobile node is changed by a network node by modifying the MIH_Register primitives in the I.E.E.E. 802.21 specification to signal the set of allocated links to a remote MIH User on the network node. The modification of MIH_Register primitive also has the added benefit of allowing the network node to subscribe to events on a specific set of links present in the mobile node as opposed to not knowing any of the links at all.