Apparatus, Systems and Methods for an Enhanced Handover Mechanism and Cell Re-Selection

• US 20170094574A1
• Filed: 05/27/2016
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: SINGH, Ajoy K., Chaugule, Raj S., Verma, Sanjay K., Bhattacharjee, Deepankar, Byun, Kwangho
• Granted Patent: US 10,225,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00226 wherein the core network technologies comprise IP multimedia system [IMS], e.g. single radio voice call continuity [SRVCC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00837 Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/008375 based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/1446 wherein at least one of the networks is unlicensed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/16 Performing reselection for specific purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A user equipment (UE), base station and a corresponding method for receiving historical data from a diagnostic server, receiving location data of the UE, determining a probability of a failed handover during a call based on the historical data and the location data, comparing the probability of the failed handover to a threshold value and initiating a call handover to a wireless local area network when the probability of the failed handover exceeds the threshold value. Also, a UE, base station and corresponding method for determining if one or more UEs have an active voice over WiFi call or if the UEs are registered with a Internet protocol (“IP”) multimedia subsystem (“IMS”) over WiFi and biasing a cell reselection procedure of the UE to select a cell of a packet switched network such as LTE.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

at a user equipment (“

UE”

) connected to a packet switched network;

receiving historical data from a diagnostic server;

receiving location data of the UE;

determining a probability of a failed handover during a call based on the historical data and the location data;

comparing the probability of the failed handover to a threshold value; and

initiating a call handover to a wireless local area network when the probability of the failed handover exceeds the threshold value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reporting, by the UE, further historical data to the diagnostic server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the UE, that the wireless local area network is not available; and

initiating a second call handover to a further network, wherein the further network is a circuit switched network.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

when the circuit switched network is not available, re-initiating the call handover to the wireless local area network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the historical data includes one of prior failed handover data or measurement thresholds.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing is performed when the UE is connected to an LTE network and the call is a Voice over LTE (VOLTS) call, the method further comprising:

receiving the threshold value from an evolved Node B (eNB) of the LTE network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the probability of the failed handover includes a first probability at a serving cell and a second probability at a neighboring cell.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the failed handover is a Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (“

SRVCC”

) call failure.

10. The UE of claim 8, wherein the processor includes a baseband processor and an application processor.

9. A user equipment (“

UE”

) device comprising;

a non-transitory memory having a program stored thereon; and

a processor, wherein execution of the program causes the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving historical data from a diagnostic server,

receiving location data of the UE,

determining probability of a failed handover during a call based on the historical data and the location data,

comparing the probability of the failed handover to a threshold value,

initiating a call handover to a wireless local area network when the probability of the failed handover exceeds the threshold value.

11. A method, comprising:

at a base station;

receiving historical data from a diagnostic server;

receiving location data from a user equipment (“

UE”

);

receiving, by the base station, an inter-radio access technology (“

IRAT”

) evaluation request from the UE;

evaluating a wireless local area network based on the location data; and

recommending a WiFi link preference to the UE for a call handover.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

calculating a pre-threshold value based on the historical data and location data; and

transmitting the pre-threshold value to the UE;

13. A method, comprising:

at user equipment (“

UE”

);

determining if the UE has an active voice over WiFi call or if the UE is registered with a internet protocol (“

IP”

) multimedia subsystem (“

IMS”

) over WiFi; and

when the UE has an active voice over WiFi call or is registered with the IMS over WiFi, biasing a cell reselection procedure of the UE to select a cell of a packet switched network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the packet switched network is one a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network or an LTE-Advanced network.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

initiating the cell reselection procedure to select the cell of the packet switched network.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

when the cell selection procedure successfully selects the cell of the packet switched network, initiating a handover of the voice over WiFi call to the packet switched network.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

when the cell selection procedure does not successfully select the cell of the packet switched network, initiating the cell reselection procedure to select a cell of a circuit switched network.

18. A method, comprising:

at a base station;

determining a first number of user equipments (UEs) connected to the base station that have currently active voice over WiFi calls;

determining a second number of UEs connected to the base station that are currently registered with a internet protocol (“

IP”

) multimedia subsystem (“

IMS”

) over WiFi;

setting, based on the first number of UEs and the second number of UEs, a network steering priority; and

broadcasting the network steering priority to all the UEs connected to the base station.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the network steering priority biases the UEs to select a cell of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network when performing a cell reselection procedure.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the setting the network steering priority comprises:

determining a ratio of the first number and second number to a total number of UEs connected to the base station; and

comparing the ratio to a threshold.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the network steering priority biases a reselection procedure of the UEs to select a cell of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and wherein the network steering priority is broadcast in a system information block (SIB).