Abstract
This invention proposes a mobility management method and system for wireless data networks, such as GPRS and UMTS systems. The considered wireless data networks consist of at least one mobile-side equipment and one network-side equipment. The cells in a considered wireless data network are partitioned into several routing areas (RAS). In the considered wireless data networks, the mobility management activities for an MS are characterized by a mobility management (MM) finite state machine exercised in both the mobile-side and network-side equipments. There are three states in the machine - Idle state, standby state and ready state. Both the mobile-side and network-side equipments employ a counter. This counter counts the number of cell movements in the packet idle period between two packet transmissions to an MS. If the number of movements reaches a threshlold K (K is a nonnegative integer), then the MM state switches from ready to standby.