A system and method for accommodating a rapid transition between
heterogeneous radio access technologies is provided. A local network 105
having a controller 114 and a plurality of access points
106,107,108,109,110,111 receives information 117 from a communication
device 101 relating to the network 116 it is exiting. During the
transition process from a first network 116, for example a cellular wide
area network, to a second network 105, for example an IMS-WLAN, the
communication device 101 passes its wide area network servicing base
station information 117 to an access point 106 of the local network 105.
Upon exiting the local network 105, wide area network servicing base
station information 121 is delivered to an exiting communication device
112, thereby enabling it to abbreviate or eliminate traditional scanning
and acquisition processes that occur in network handoff exchanges.