Method And Apparatus For Utilizing Mobility State Information

• US 20110086635A1
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Grob-Lipski, Heidrun
• Application Number:
  US12/900,647
• Publication Number:
  US 20110086635A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/38 by fixed network equipment

Abstract

A network node receives (101) from a user equipment (UE), an indication of a mobility state of the UE. The network node utilizes (102) the mobility state of the UE to adapt a time to trigger (TTT) value for use in improved handover operation. Depending on the embodiment, the network node may also track handover failures (such as failures due to missing handover commands) and handover ping pongs and use this information to determine a TTT value that achieves a reduction in either a number of handover failures due to missing handover commands or a number of handover ping pongs or possibly both.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a network node from a user equipment (UE), an indication of a mobility state of the UE;

utilizing, by the network node, the mobility state of the UE to adapt a time to trigger (TTT) value for use in improved handover operation.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising

sending, by the network node to the UE, a request indication for the mobility state information that the network node received.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein receiving the indication of the mobility state of the UE comprises

receiving the indication of the mobility state of the UE in the next MeasurementReport message received by the network node from the UE after sending the request indication.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising

tracking handover failures and handover ping pongs.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value comprises

utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value for a given mobility state.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value comprises

determining a TTT value that achieves a reduction in at least one of a number of handover failures due to missing handover commands (HOCF) and a number of handover ping pongs.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value comprises

utilizing at least one of a gradient balancing algorithm and a genetic search algorithm to adapt a TTT value.

8. An article of manufacture comprising a processor-readable storage medium storing one or more software programs which when executed by one or more processors performs the steps of the method of claim 1.

9. A method comprising:

sending, by a network node to a user equipment (UE), a request indication for mobility state information;

receiving, by the network node from the UE in response to the request indication, an indication of a mobility state for the UE.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising

tracking handover failures and handover ping pongs.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising

prior to sending the request indication, detecting one of a number of handover failures exceeding a failure threshold or a number of handover ping pongs exceeding a ping pong threshold.

12. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising

utilizing, by the network node, the mobility state of the UE to adapt a mobility state related time to trigger (TTT) value for use in improved handover operation.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value comprises

utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value for a given mobility state.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value comprises

determining a TTT value that achieves a reduction in at least one of a number of handover failures due to missing handover commands (HOCF) and a number of handover ping pongs.

15. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein utilizing the mobility state of the UE to adapt a TTT value comprises

utilizing at least one of a gradient balancing algorithm and a genetic search algorithm to adapt a TTT value.

16. A method comprising:

performing by a user equipment (UE) one of detecting the fulfillment of event A3 or receiving from a network node a request indication for mobility state information;

sending, by the UE to the network node in response to the step of performing, an indication of a mobility state for the UE.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein sending the indication of the mobility state for the UE comprises

sending the indication of the mobility state for the UE in a MeasurementReport message.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein sending the indication of the mobility state for the UE in the MeasurementReport message comprises

sending the indication of the mobility state for the UE in the MeasurementReport message along with an indication of an A3 event.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein sending the indication of the mobility state for the UE comprises

sending the indication of the mobility state for the UE in the next MeasurementReport message sent by the UE after receiving the request indication.

20. An article of manufacture comprising a processor-readable storage medium storing one or more software programs which when executed by one or more processors performs the steps of the method of claim 16.