Method for controlling channel re-selection

• US 7,447,487 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2004
• Issued: 11/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Moore, Michael R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cumming; William D
• Application Number:
  US10/921,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20050020293A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,537 Days
• Field of Search: 455/434, 455/168.1, 455/438, 455/403, 455/429, 455/446
• US Class Current: 455/165.1
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 1/005 in a loop
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 1/0091 provided with means for scanning over a band of frequencies H03J1/0058 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/06 Reselecting a communication resource in the serving access point

Abstract

A method for re-selecting control channels in a mobile station reduces the use of resources by limiting an evaluation of candidate control channels to those channels which satisfy certain criteria and are deemed to be eligible control channels. As a consequence, resources are not spent on attempting to re-select a control channel that is not compatible with the mobile station.

Claims

1. A mobile station comprising:

a processor; and

a first memory storing control program instructions, where when executed by the processor, the control program instructions function;

to store, at the mobile station, data identifying a plurality of candidate control channels, the mobile station and each of the plurality of candidate control channels having service type associated therewith; and

data identifying the service type of each of the plurality of candidate control channels,

to determine whether the service type of each of the plurality of control channels is incompatible with the service type associated with the mobile station, and

to mark, as ineligible, the stored data identifying each of the plurality of candidate control channels for which the service type associated therewith is determined to be incompatible with the service type associated with the mobile station.

2. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the data is in the form of a list.

3. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the data is a neighbor list.

4. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the control program instructions further function:

to store, at the mobile station, data identifying a system type associated with each of the plurality of candidate control channels, the mobile station and each of the plurality of candidate control channels having a system type associated therewith,

to determine whether the system type of each of the plurality of control channels is incompatible with system type of-associated with the mobile station, and

to mark, as ineligible, the stored data identifying each of the plurality of candidate control channels for which the corresponding system type is determined to be incompatible with the system type associated with the mobile station.

5. The mobile station of claim 4, wherein the system type is selected from the group consisting of private, public, and semi-private.

6. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the service type is selected from the group consisting of voice service, data service, and facsimile service.

7. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the instructions are to mark the stored data by modifying a parameter of the stored data.

8. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the instructions are to mark the stored data by setting an eligibility flag associated with the stored data to an ineligible state.

9. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the instructions are to mark the stored data by removing each of the plurality of candidate control channels that are determined to be incompatible with the mobile station from consideration in a reselection process.

10. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions are to further function to select a primary control channel from those candidate control channels not identified as being ineligible.

11. The mobile station of claim 10, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions are to further function to attempt to re-select the selected primary control channel, and camp on the selected primary control channel if the attempt to re-select is successful.

12. The mobile station of claim 10, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions are to further function to attempt to re-select the selected primary control channel, and mark as ineligible the selected primary control channel if the attempt to re- select is not successful and the attempt to re-select failed due to an incompatibility between the mobile station and the selected primary control channel.

13. The mobile station of claim 12, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions are to further function to repeat the selecting, attempting, and marking until an attempt to re-select is successful, and camp on the selected primary control channel.

14. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the mobile station includes a cellular phone.

15. The mobile station of claim 1, wherein the first memory includes a read only memory.

16. The mobile station of claim 1, further including a second memory, the instructions to store the data identifying the plurality of candidate control channels and the at least one parameter associated with each of the plurality of candidate control channels to the second memory.

17. The mobile station of claim 16, wherein the second memory includes a random access memory.

18. A mobile station comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing control program instructions, where when executed by the processor, the control program instructions function;

to store, at the mobile station, data identifying a plurality of candidate control channels, the mobile station and each of the plurality of candidate control channels having a service type associated therewith and a system type associated therewith; and

data identifying at least one of the system type and the service type associated with each of the plurality of candidate control channels,

to determine whether the system type or the service type of each of the plurality of control channels is incompatible with the respective system type or service type associated with the mobile station, and

to mark, as ineligible, the stored data identifying each of the plurality of candidate control channels for which the system type or service type associated therewith is determined to be incompatible with the system type or the service type associated with the mobile station,

to select a primary control channel from those candidate control channels not identified as being ineligible, and

to attempt, in response to the selecting, to re-select the selected primary control channel, and camp on the selected primary control channel if the attempt to re-select is successful.

19. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein the system type is selected from the group consisting of private, public, and semi-private.

20. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein the service type is selected from the group consisting of voice, data, and facsimile.

21. A mobile station comprising:

a processor; and

a first memory storing control program instructions, where when executed by the processor, the control program instructions function;

to store, at the mobile station, data identifying a plurality of candidate control channels, the mobile station and each of the plurality of candidate control channels having a service type associated therewith; and

data identifying the service type of each of the plurality of candidate control channels,

to determine whether the service type of each of the plurality of control channels is incompatible with the service type associated with the mobile station,

to mark, as ineligible, the stored data identifying each of the plurality of candidate control channels for which the service type associated therewith is determined to be incompatible with the service type associated with the mobile station,

to select a primary control channel from those candidate control channels not identified as being ineligible, and

to attempt to re-select the selected primary control channel, and mark as ineligible the selected primary control channel if the attempt to re-select is not successful and the attempt to re-select failed due to an incompatibility between the mobile station and the selected primary control channel.

22. The mobile station of claim 21, wherein when executed by the processor, the instructions are to further function to repeat the selecting, attempting, and marking until an attempt to re-select is successful, and camp on the selected primary control channel.