HARD HANDOVER PROTOCOL TO ACHIEVE EARLY MAC READINESS

• US 20090016297A1
• Filed: 07/11/2007
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Hyunjeong Hannah
• Granted Patent: US 8,379,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off

Abstract

A technique to reduce the service disruption time of a mobile station (MS) when the MS performs a hard handover (HHO) is provided. An MS receives MAC context information that is necessary to connect to the target base station (BS) through the serving BS during the HHO preparation time instead of HHO execution time. The HHO preparation phase refers to the stage where a handover is initiated but the MS is still connected with the current serving BS. On the other hand, once the HHO execution begins, the MS must disconnect from the serving BS in order to establish the communication with the target BS.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

requesting MAC context information of a neighbor base station for a mobile station prior to the mobile station disconnecting from a current base station.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing the MAC context information of the neighbor base station to the mobile station with a request for a handover.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising providing the MAC context information of the neighbor base station to the mobile station with a response to a request for a handover.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising requesting additional MAC context information for an alternate neighbor base station for the mobile station prior to the mobile station disconnecting from the current base station.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising providing the MAC context information for the neighbor base station and the additional MAC context information for the alternate neighbor base station to the mobile station with a request for a handover.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising upon selection and connection to the neighbor base station or the alternate neighbor base station by the mobile station, receiving a handover completion notification.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising upon receiving the handover completion notification, sending notification to release the resources of a non-selected neighbor base station.

8. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising providing the MAC context information for the neighbor base station and the additional MAC context information for the alternate neighbor base station to the mobile station with a response to a request for a handover.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mobile station and the current base station communicate wirelessly.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the MAC context information includes connection identifiers for a connection between the mobile station and the neighbor base station.

11. A machine-readable medium having machine executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:

requesting MAC context information of a neighbor base station for a mobile station prior to the mobile station disconnecting from a current base station.

12. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the method further comprising providing the MAC context information of the neighbor base station to the mobile station with a request for a handover.

13. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the method further comprising providing the MAC context information of the neighbor base station to the mobile station with a response to a request for a handover.

14. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 11, the method further comprising requesting additional MAC context information for an alternate neighbor base station for the mobile station prior to the mobile station disconnecting from the current base station.

15. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 14, the method further comprising providing the MAC context information for the neighbor base station and the additional MAC context information for the alternate neighbor base station to the mobile station with a request for a handover.

16. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, the method further comprising upon selection and connection to the neighbor base station or the alternate neighbor base station by the mobile station, receiving a handover completion notification.

17. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 16, the method further comprising upon receiving the handover completion notification, sending notification to release the resources of a non-selected neighbor base station.

18. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 14, the method further comprising providing the MAC context information for the neighbor base station and the additional MAC context information for the alternate neighbor base station to the mobile station with a response to a request for a handover.

19. The machine-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the MAC context information includes connection identifiers for a connection between the mobile station and the neighbor base station.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a network interface to receive, via an antenna, a message containing MAC context information and connection identifiers for multiple potential connections; and

a MAC component coupled to the network interface to select one of the multiple potential connections for a handover operation from a current connection to the one of the multiple potential connections.

21. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein the current connection and the multiple potential connections are wireless connections.

22. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein the message is a handover request response message from a current serving base station.

23. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein the message is a handover request message from a current serving base station.

24. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein the network interface is further to send a commit to handover message after the MAC component has selected the one of the multiple potential connections.

25. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein the MAC context information is related to multiple neighbor base stations.

26. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein each of the multiple potential connections is to a different neighbor base station.