Communication terminal and method for performing a cell search

• US 10,285,118 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2016
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Salim, Umer, Murgan, Tudor, Clevorn, Thorsten, Dawid, Herbert, Canonici, Jean-Xavier, Huertgen, Frank, Ascheuer, Peter, Kerroum, Almansor, Stefan-Vetten, Sonja
• Primary Examiner(s): Sivji, Nizar N
• Application Number:
  US15/357,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20170181068A1
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/008375 based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0094 Definition of hand-off measurement parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

According to an example, a communication terminal is described comprising a determiner configured to determine cell search control information including at least a radio access technology to be searched for, a search duration, a number of search iterations, a number of antennas to be used for the search and based on at least one of information about the current radio conditions that the communication terminal is experiencing, position of the terminal, historical information about the presence of the radio cells at the position of the communication terminal, communication terminal attach history in terms of moving from some specific RATs/cells to other specific RATs/cells, proximity sensors'"'"' information and a transceiver configured to perform a cell search based on the determined cell search control information.

Claims

1. A communication terminal comprising:

a determiner configured to determine cell search control information including at least one of a radio access technology (RAT) to be searched for, a search duration, a number of search iterations, or a number of antennas to be used for the search based on information about radio conditions at a position of the communication terminal and historical information about presence of radio cells at the position of the communication terminal, wherein the historical information about presence of radio cells comprises information about radio cells to which the communication terminal has previously connected at the position of the communication terminal; and

a transceiver, coupled to the determiner, and configured to perform a cell search based on the determined cell search control information to identify a radio cell of the RAT to be searched for, and to cause the communication terminal to move a connection from a previous radio cell of a previous RAT to the radio cell of the RAT to be searched for.

2. The communication terminal of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to control the transceiver to perform a cell search based on the determined cell search control information.

3. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the radio conditions comprise a reception strength in a band corresponding to a predetermined radio access technology.

4. The communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the determiner is configured to determine the number of antennas to be used for the search based on whether the reception strength is above a first predetermined threshold.

5. The communication terminal of claim 4, wherein the determiner is configured to set the number of antennas to be used for the search to a single antenna if the reception strength is above the first predetermined threshold and to set the number of antennas to be used for the search to multiple antennas if the reception strength is below the first predetermined threshold.

6. The communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the determiner is configured to set that a radio access technology is to be searched if the reception strength in the band corresponding to the radio access technology is above a second predetermined threshold and to set that another radio access technology is to be searched if the reception strength in a band corresponding to the radio access technology is below the second predetermined threshold.

7. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the radio conditions comprise a channel profile in a band corresponding to a predetermined radio access technology.

8. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the radio conditions comprise information about a performance of an antenna of the communication terminal.

9. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the cell search control information includes whether an antenna of the communication terminal is to be used for the search and the determiner is configured to set that the antenna of the communication terminal is to be used for the search only if its contribution to a reception performance lies above a third predetermined threshold.

10. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the historical information about presence of radio cells comprises attach history information in terms of moving from some specific radio access technologies or cells to other specific radio access technologies or cells.

11. The communication terminal of claim 1, further comprising a position determiner configured to determine the position of the communication terminal.

12. The communication terminal of claim 11, wherein the position determiner is configured to determine the position of the communication terminal based on a radio cell to which the communication terminal is being connected.

13. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the cell search is a cell search for a selection of a cell operating according to the radio access technology or a cell search for a reselection or a handover from a cell of a first communication network operating according to the radio access technology to a different cell of same or different communication network operating according to a second radio access technology, wherein the second radio access technology is the same or different compared to the radio access technology.

14. The communication terminal of claim 13, wherein the radio access technology and the second radio access technology are cellular mobile communication network technologies.

15. The communication terminal of claim 13, wherein the radio access technology and the second radio access technology are each one of a 2G radio access technology, a 3G radio access technology or a 4G radio access technology.

16. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein each search iteration corresponds to a search process in a predetermined number of time slots.

17. The communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the search control information includes one or more radio cells operating on the radio access technology to be searched for.

18. A method for performing a cell search comprising:

determining cell search control information including at least one of a radio access technology (RAT) to be searched for, a search duration, a number of search iterations, or a number of antennas to be used for the search based on information about radio conditions at a position of a communication terminal and historical information about presence of radio cells at the position of the communication terminal, wherein the historical information about presence of radio cells comprises information about radio cells to which the communication terminal has previously connected at the position of the communication terminal;

performing a cell search based on the determined cell search control information to identify a radio cell of the RAT to be searched for; and

causing the communication terminal to move a connection from a previous radio cell of a previous RAT to the radio cell of the RAT to be searched for.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having recorded instructions thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

determine cell search control information including at least one of a radio access technology (RAT) to be searched for, a search duration, a number of search iterations, or a number of antennas to be used for the search based on information about radio conditions at a position of a communication terminal and historical information about presence of radio cells at the position of the communication terminal, wherein the historical information about presence of radio cells comprises information about radio cells to which the communication terminal has previously connected at the position of the communication terminal;

perform a cell search based on the determined cell search control information to identify a radio cell of the RAT to be searched for; and

cause the communication terminal to move a connection from a previous radio cell of a previous RAT to the radio cell of the RAT to be searched for.

20. A communication terminal comprising:

a determiner configured to determine cell search control information corresponding to a cell search, the cell search control information including a number of antennas to be used for the cell search based on at least one of information about radio conditions at a position of the communication terminal or historical information about presence of radio cells at the position of the communication terminal, wherein the determiner is configured to set the number of antennas to be used for the cell search to a single antenna if a reception strength at the communication terminal is above a first predetermined threshold and to set the number of antennas to be used for the cell search to multiple antennas if the reception strength is below the first predetermined threshold; and

a transceiver, coupled to the determiner, and configured to perform the cell search based on the determined cell search control information to identify a radio cell of a second radio access technology (RAT), and to cause the communication terminal to move a connection from a previous radio cell of a first RAT to the radio cell of the second RAT.