Methods of setting mobile internet protocol timer value

1. A method for automatically managing mobile Internet Protocol re-registration, comprising:

a home agent receiving a mobile Internet Protocol registration message;

in response to the mobile Internet Protocol registration message, the home agent determining a dynamically defined registration lifetime based on changing mobile Internet Protocol network operating conditions, wherein the mobile Internet Protocol network operating conditions comprise currently available system operating resources and a current load of mobile Internet Protocol registration messages, wherein the currently available system operating resources comprise at least one of Internet Protocol addresses, memory capacity of a computer, and processor capacity of the computer, wherein when the current load is above a predefined threshold, the registration lifetime is selected in a round-robin fashion from a predefined number M of calculated registration lifetimes, wherein the calculated registration lifetimes are determined based on how much the current load is above the predefined threshold, and wherein the home agent executes on the computer; and

the home agent transmitting a registration response message comprising the registration lifetime.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the Internet Protocol registration message is transmitted by one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a laptop computer, and a tablet computer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the registration lifetime is determined to be in the range from about 10 minutes to about 120 minutes.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the home agent keeps a data session open at least for the length of time of the registration lifetime.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the current load is determined by the home agent at least in part as a sliding window average of numbers of registration messages received per unit time.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the registration lifetime is further based on a history of mobile Internet Protocol registration messages over a predefined length of time.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the current load is above a predefined threshold, the registration lifetime varies from a predefined nominal registration lifetime by an amount based on the how much the current load is above the predefined threshold.

8. A method of automatically managing mobile Internet Protocol re-registration, comprising:

a home agent receiving a mobile Internet Protocol registration message;

in response to the mobile Internet Protocol registration message, the home agent determining a dynamically defined registration lifetime based on at least a current load of mobile Internet Protocol registration messages, wherein the current load is determined by the home agent at least in part as a rate of change of numbers of registration messages received per unit time, wherein when the current load is above a predefined threshold, the registration lifetime varies from a predefined average registration lifetime by an amount based on how much the current load is above the predefined threshold, and wherein the registration lifetime varies from the predefined average registration lifetime in a negative sense when the rate of change is positive and the registration lifetime varies from the predefined average registration lifetime in a positive sense when the rate of change is negative; and

the home agent transmitting a registration response message comprising the registration lifetime.

9. A method for automatically managing mobile Internet Protocol re-registration, comprising:

a home agent receiving a mobile Internet Protocol registration message;

in response to the mobile Internet Protocol registration message, the home agent determining a dynamically defined registration lifetime based at least on currently available system operating resources and a current load of mobile Internet Protocol registration messages, wherein the currently available system operating resources comprise at least one of Internet Protocol addresses, memory capacity of a computer, and processor capacity of the computer, wherein when the current load is above a predefined threshold, the registration lifetime is selected in a round-robin fashion from a predefined number M of calculated registration lifetimes, wherein the calculated registration lifetimes are determined based on how much the current load is above the predefined threshold, and wherein the home agent executes on the computer; and

the home agent transmitting a registration response message comprising the registration lifetime.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein when a pool of available Internet Protocol addresses drops below a threshold, the registration lifetime is reduced from a predefined nominal registration lifetime by an amount based on how much the pool of available Internet Protocol addresses is below the threshold.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein when a pool of available memory capacity of the computer drops below a threshold, the registration lifetime is reduced from a predefined nominal registration lifetime by an amount based on how much the pool of available memory capacity is below the threshold.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the home agent determines the registration lifetime periodically after a predetermined amount of time.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the home agent determines the registration lifetime after every predetermined number N of received registration messages, and wherein the predetermined number N of received registration messages is greater than one.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the Internet Protocol addresses are Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses.