Method, Apparatus and Computer Program Product for Reducing Outage Probability for Mobile Devices

• US 20100248708A1
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Leping, Huang, Koivisto, Tommi
• Granted Patent: US 9,380,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0007 for multicast or broadcast services, e.g. MBMS multicast or broadcast application services H04W4/06; resource management for broadcast services H04W72/30; connection management for selective distribution or broadcast H04W76/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0058 Transmission of hand-off measurement information, e.g. measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

An apparatus for enabling dual mode communication may include a processor. The processor may be configured to receive (102), via a source cell, an indication of service availability for a particular service in a target cell, determine (104) whether a current transmission format of the target cell is indicative of the particular service being available at a region proximate to an edge of the target cell, switch to communication with the target cell from communication with the source cell in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is available’ at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell, and trigger (110, 112, 130) the target cell to make an adjustment (120, 132) to the transmission format to cover cell edge area in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is not available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided.

Claims

1-24. -24. (canceled)

25. A method comprising:

receiving, via a source cell, an indication of service availability for a particular service in a target cell;

determining whether a current transmission format of the target cell is indicative of the particular service being available at a region proximate to an edge of the target cell;

switching to communication with the target cell from communication with the source cell in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell; and

triggering the target cell to make an adjustment to the current transmission format in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is not available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein triggering the target cell to make the adjustment comprises providing an alteration to the modulation and coding scheme of the target cell.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein providing the alteration to the modulation and coding scheme of the target cell comprises providing adjusting to a lower order modulation and coding scheme.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein triggering the target cell to make the adjustment comprises triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via communication with the source cell.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein triggering the target cell to make the adjustment comprises triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via a communication made directly from a mobile terminal to the target cell.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein triggering the target cell to make the adjustment comprises triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via a communication made directly from a mobile terminal to the target cell while maintaining the mobile terminal in an idle mode.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein triggering the target cell to make the adjustment comprises triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via a specific random access preamble from a mobile terminal to the target cell.

32. A computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code portions stored therein, the computer-executable program code portions comprising:

first program code instructions for receiving, via a source cell, an indication of service availability for a particular service in a target cell;

second program code instructions for determining whether a current transmission format of the target cell is indicative of the particular service being available at a region proximate to an edge of the target cell;

third program code instructions for switching to communication with the target cell from communication with the source cell in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell; and

fourth program code instructions for triggering the target cell to make an adjustment to the current transmission format in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is not available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell.

33. The computer program product of claim 32, wherein the fourth program code instructions include instructions for providing an alteration to the modulation and coding scheme of the target cell.

34. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the fourth program code instructions include instructions for adjusting to a lower order modulation and coding scheme.

35. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code

the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following;

receive, via a source cell, an indication of service availability for a particular service in a target cell;

determine whether a current transmission format of the target cell is indicative of the particular service being available at a region proximate to an edge of the target cell;

switch to communication with the target cell from communication with the source cell in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell; and

trigger the target cell to make an adjustment to the current transmission format in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is not available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the processor is configured to trigger the target cell to make the adjustment by providing an alteration to the modulation and coding scheme of the target cell.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the processor is configured to provide the alteration to the modulation and coding scheme of the target cell by adjusting to a lower order modulation and coding scheme.

38. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the processor is configured to trigger the target cell to make the adjustment by triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via communication with the source cell.

39. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the processor is configured to trigger the target cell to make the adjustment by triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via a communication made directly from a mobile terminal to the target cell.

40. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the processor is configured to trigger the target cell to make the adjustment by triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via a communication made directly from a mobile terminal to the target cell while maintaining the mobile terminal in an idle mode.

41. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the processor is configured to trigger the target cell to make the adjustment by triggering the target cell to make the adjustment via a specific random access preamble from a mobile terminal to the target cell.

42. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving, via a source cell, an indication of service availability for a particular service in a target cell;

means for determining whether a current transmission format of the target cell is indicative of the particular service being available at a region proximate to an edge of the target cell;

means for switching to communication with the target cell from communication with the source cell in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell; and

means for triggering the target cell to make an adjustment to the current transmission format in response to a determination that the current transmission format of the target cell indicates that the particular service is not available at the region proximate to the edge of the target cell.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein means for triggering the target cell to make the adjustment comprises means for providing an alteration to the modulation and coding scheme of the target cell.