Vertical handover composite quality measures

• US 8,565,744 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2006
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Taaghol, Pouya, Gupta, Vivek
• Primary Examiner(s): Cumming, William D
• Application Number:
  US11/591,191
• Publication Number:
  US 20080101318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,548 Days
• Field of Search: 370/331, 370/332, 370/333, 370/329, 370/338, 370/466, 455/436, 455/522, 455/418, 455/445, 455/552.1
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/04 Reselecting a cell layer in multi-layered cells
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/302 due to low signal strength

Abstract

A composite quality measure helps determine a target for a vertical handover between different connection types. Various measurements are normalized, weighted and summed to produce composite quality measures. A composite quality measure may be compared to a target value and the corresponding connection may be added to a feasibility table if the composite quality measure is above the target.

Claims

1. A method performed by a mobile device comprising:

receiving a plurality of measurements corresponding to operation of a first radio interface;

normalizing each of the plurality of measurements to produce a plurality of normalized measurements;

weighting each of the plurality of normalized measurements to produce a plurality of weighted normalized measurements;

summing the plurality of weighted normalized measurements to form a composite quality measure for the first radio interface;

receiving a second plurality of measurements corresponding to operation of a second radio interface;

normalizing each of the second plurality of measurements to produce a second plurality of normalized measurements;

weighting each of the second plurality of normalized measurements to produce a second plurality of weighted normalized measurements; and

summing the second plurality of weighted normalized measurements to form a composite quality measure for the second radio interface.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the composite quality measure against a target quality measure for the first radio interface, and adding the composite quality measure to a feasibility table if the composite quality measure exceeds the target quality measure.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the composite quality measure for the second radio interface against a target quality measure for the second radio interface, and adding the composite quality measure for the second radio interface to a feasibility table if the composite quality measure for the second radio interface exceeds the target quality measure for the second radio interface.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising comparing the composite quality measures for the first and second radio interfaces to determine which radio interface to use for a vertical handover.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first radio interface comprises a cellular telephone interface, and the second radio interface comprises a local area network interface.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating the method for additional radio interfaces within a common apparatus to produce a plurality of composite quality measures.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising comparing the plurality of composite quality measures to determine which of the plurality of radio interfaces to utilize for a vertical handover.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the measurements include at least one measurement from the set consisting of:

signal strength, bit error rate, effective bandwidth, round trip delay, and re-transmit rate.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein different target quality measures are utilized for each of the plurality of radio interfaces.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the measurements is generated by the first radio interface, and at least one of the measurements is received from a far end device communicating with the first radio interface.

11. An article having a machine readable non-transitory medium with instructions stored thereon that when accessed result in a mobile communications device performing the method of claim 1.