System and Method For Dynamic Wireless Carrier Swap System

• US 20170055201A1
• Filed: 08/18/2015
• Published: 02/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Murray, Allen R., Lei, Oliver
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,601 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A vehicle carrier swap system includes a controller that, in response to a notification indicating first public land mobile network (PLMN) access signal quality is less than a threshold and successful registration with a second PLMN selected from a set of PLMNs made available by at least two subscriber identity modules associated with non-roaming partner carriers according to a priority defined by the carriers, provides network access using the second PLMN.

Claims

1. A vehicle carrier swap system, comprising:

a controller programmed to, in response to a notification indicating first public land mobile network (PLMN) access signal quality being less than a threshold and successful registration with a second PLMN selected from a set of PLMNs made available by at least two subscriber identity modules associated with non-roaming partner carriers according to a priority defined by the carriers, provide network access using the second PLMN.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the notification indicating that the first PLMN access signal quality is less than a threshold is based on at least one of a signal strength being less than a first predetermined threshold and a data rate being less than a second predetermined threshold.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second PLMN is further selected based on signal quality.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the signal quality is based on at least one of a signal strength being greater than a third predetermined threshold and a data rate being greater than a fourth predetermined threshold.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the signal strength is based on a reference signal received power (RSRP).

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second PLMN is further selected based on an availability of the second PLMN as defined by a radio frequency (RF) channel scan.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the prioritized set of networks is defined in descending order of priority as a home PLMN (HPLMN), an equivalent HPLMN (EHPLMN), a registered PLMN (RPLMN), a visited PLMN (VPLMN), and an operator PLMN (OPLMN).

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have a dual SIM dual standby (DSDS) configuration.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have a dual SIM dual active (DSDA) configuration.

10. A carrier swapping method for a vehicle, comprising:

by a controller,

in response to a notification indicating first public land mobile network (PLMN) access signal quality being less than a threshold, initiating registration with a second PLMN selected from a set of PLMNs made available by at least two subscriber identity modules associated with non-roaming partner carriers according to a priority defined by the carriers, and

upon registration, providing network access using the second PLMN.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the notification indicating that the first PLMN access signal quality is less than a threshold is based on at least one of a signal strength being less than a first predetermined threshold and a data rate being less than a second predetermined threshold.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the second PLMN is further selected based on signal quality.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the signal quality is based on at least one of a signal strength being greater than a third predetermined threshold and a data rate being greater than a fourth predetermined threshold.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the signal strength is based on a reference signal received power (RSRP).

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the second PLMN is further selected based on an availability of the second PLMN as defined by a radio frequency (RF) channel scan.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the prioritized set of networks is defined in descending order of priority as a home PLMN (HPLMN), an equivalent HPLMN (EHPLMN), a registered PLMN (RPLMN), a visited PLMN (VPLMN), and an operator PLMN (OPLMN).

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least two subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have a dual SIM dual standby (DSDS) configuration.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least two subscriber identity modules (SIMs) have a dual SIM dual active (DSDA) configuration.

19. A vehicle carrier swap system, comprising:

a controller programmed to

provide network access using a first public land mobile network (PLMN),

in response to signal quality associated with the network access being less than a threshold, select a second PLMN from a set of PLMNs made available by at least two subscriber identity modules associated with non-roaming partner carriers,

initiate registration with the second PLMN, and

upon registration, provide network access using the second PLMN.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the set of PLMNs is a set of available PLMNs defined by a radio frequency (RF) channel scan and prioritized in descending order of priority defined by the carriers.