METHOD AND APPARATUS TO ENABLE HAND-IN FOR FEMTOCELLS
First Claim
1. A method of identifying a list of Femtocell access points (FAPs) for a user equipment (UE) communication session in a communication system comprising a first wireless communication system and a second wireless communication system comprising a plurality of FAPs and a Femtocell gateway (FGW) communicatively coupling said FAPs to the first wireless communication system, the method comprising:
- a) receiving information about a UE that has detected a particular FAP with an identification attribute;
b) from a first set of FAPs that comprises a plurality of FAP that are not designated for the UE but have a same identification attribute as the particular FAP, using said UE information to retrieve a second set of FAPs designated for said UE that have the same identification attribute as the particular FAP.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Some embodiments provide a method of identifying a list of Femtocell Access Points (FAPs) for a user equipment (UE) communication session in a communication system including a first wireless communication system and a second wireless communication system. The second wireless communication system includes multiple FAPs and a Femtocell gateway (FGW) that communicatively couples the FAPs to the first wireless communication system. The method receives information about a UE that has detected a particular FAP that has an identification attribute. The method uses the UE information to retrieve a set of FAPs designated for the UE where the FAPs in the set of FAPs have the same identification attribute as the particular FAP. The retrieved set of FAPs is from a set of several FAPs that are not designated for the UE but have a same identification attribute as the particular FAP.
383 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of identifying a list of Femtocell access points (FAPs) for a user equipment (UE) communication session in a communication system comprising a first wireless communication system and a second wireless communication system comprising a plurality of FAPs and a Femtocell gateway (FGW) communicatively coupling said FAPs to the first wireless communication system, the method comprising:
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a) receiving information about a UE that has detected a particular FAP with an identification attribute; b) from a first set of FAPs that comprises a plurality of FAP that are not designated for the UE but have a same identification attribute as the particular FAP, using said UE information to retrieve a second set of FAPs designated for said UE that have the same identification attribute as the particular FAP. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of handing over a communication session of an item of user equipment (UE) in a communication system comprising a first wireless communication system and a second wireless communication system comprising a plurality of Femtocell access points (FAPs) and a Femtocell gateway (FGW) communicatively coupling said FAPs to the first wireless communication system, the method comprising:
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a) receiving a request to hand-in a communication session for a UE to a particular FAP, said request comprising an identification of the UE and an identifying parameter of the particular FAP; b) using said UE identification to identify a set of FAPs that have a same identifying parameter as the particular FAP, wherein the UE is authorized to use the services FAPs in said identified set; and c) when said identified set comprises at least one FAP, sending a handover request to the FAPs in the identified set, wherein said handover request is for requesting that the FAP in the identified list prepare to receive a handover of said communication session from said first wireless communication system to said FAP on said list of authorized FAPs, wherein said handover request is sent without knowing whether said particular FAP is on said identified set of FAPs which the UE is authorized to use. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A communication system, said system comprising:
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a) a first wireless communication system; and b) a second wireless communication system, wherein said second wireless communication system comprises; i) a plurality of Femtocell access points (FAPs); ii) at least one Femtocell gateway (FGW) communicatively coupling said FAPs to the first wireless communication system; and iii) a database comprising a first set of identifying parameters by which the FAPs are identified to the first communication system, wherein a plurality of FAPs share a same set of said identifying parameters and cannot be uniquely identified by the first communication system, wherein the database further comprises information for uniquely identifying a set of FAPs that a user equipment is authorized to use.
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Specification