Seamless Mobile Handover

• US 20160142944A1
• Filed: 11/16/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parallel Wireless, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Parallel Wireless, Inc.
• Inventors: Cao, Yang
• Granted Patent: US 10,154,440 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0022 for transferring data sessions between adjacent core network technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A localized method for performing handover of a mobile device at a mobile base station is disclosed, comprising: establishing, at a cellular base station, a relay connection with a second base station for backhaul; receiving a handover request for a mobile device, the handover request including an IP address; receiving, at the cellular base station, a handover confirmation message from the mobile device following handover authorization for the mobile device; sending, from the cellular base station, a request to the mobile device to shut down a cellular radio connection with the cellular base station; and establishing, using the IP address and a non-cellular radio, a data connection with the mobile device on the same IP address, thereby performing a handover of the mobile device for providing continued IP connectivity for the mobile device at the cellular base station.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

establishing, at a cellular base station, a relay connection with a second base station for backhaul;

receiving a handover request for a mobile device, the handover request including an IP address;

receiving, at the cellular base station, a handover confirmation message from the mobile device following handover authorization for the mobile device;

sending, from the cellular base station, a request to the mobile device to shut down a cellular radio connection with the cellular base station; and

establishing, using the IP address and a non-cellular radio, a data connection with the mobile device on the same IP address,

thereby performing a handover of the mobile device for providing continued IP connectivity for the mobile device at the cellular base station.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cellular base station is an eNodeB and is a type 1a LTE relay, and the mobile device is a user equipment (UE).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cellular base station requests radio bearers over a Un protocol connection from the second base station.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-cellular radio is a Wi-Fi radio and the cellular radio connection is an LTE radio connection.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering data via Wi-Fi to the mobile device and spoofing a core network regarding the delivered data via releasing a data radio bearer while keeping an S1 connection.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising reestablishing an LTE radio connection prior to handover to another LTE cell.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server and Wi-Fi controller to assign the IP address over the non-cellular radio.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking, prior to receiving the handover request for the mobile device, radio resource usage of the mobile device, and transferring the tracked radio resource usage to the cellular base station during handover.

9. A system, comprising:

a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) base station configured to perform steps, including;

establishing, at a cellular base station, a relay connection with a second base station for backhaul;

receiving a handover request for a mobile device, the handover request including an IP address;

receiving, at the cellular base station, a handover confirmation message from the mobile device following handover authorization for the mobile device;

sending, from the cellular base station, a request to the mobile device to shut down a cellular radio connection with the cellular base station; and

establishing, using the IP address and a non-cellular radio, a data connection with the mobile device on the same IP address.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a Wi-Fi controller.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-RAT base station is a mobile base station.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the multi-RAT base station has a LTE radio and a Wi-Fi access radio.