Selecting a radio node for data traffic offloading

• US 9,554,403 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2014
• Issued: 01/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Sirotkin, Sasha, Venkatachalam, Muthaiah
• Primary Examiner(s): KAMARA, MOHAMED A
• Application Number:
  US14/338,638
• Publication Number:
  US 20150029879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 916 Days
• Field of Search: 370/276, 370/277, 370/281, 370/293, 370/295, 370/310.2, 370328-333, 370/338, 370/341, 370/343, 370/345, 370/431, 370436-437, 370/442, 370480-482, 455/436, 455/447, 455/450, 455/451, 455/452.1, 455/464
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/243 with built-in antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/00 Arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern of the waves radiated from an antenna or antenna system means for positioning H01Q1/125
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0686 Hybrid systems, i.e. switching and simultaneous transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0695 using beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0023 Interference mitigation or co-ordination direct sequence spread spectrum [DSSS] systems H04B1/7097; frequency hopping H04B1/713; allocation criteria for ingress interference avoidance H04L5/0062; frequency allocation criteria for requirements on out-of-channel emissions H04L5/0066; arrangements for removing intersymbol interference or baseband equalisers H04L25/03006; peak power aspects in multicarrier modulation H04L27/2614; power management H04W52/00; traffic scheduling H04W72/54, H04W72/541
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0066 of control information between different types of networks in order to establish a new radio link in the target network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0072 of resource information of target access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0083 Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0209 : in terminal devices terminal devices per se H04W88/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 : Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A technology that is operable to select a radio node on a communications network is disclosed. In one embodiment, a user equipment (UE) is configured with circuitry configured to determine when to offload data traffic of the UE to a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) in a multi-radio access technology (RAT) communications network based on radio access network (RAN) assistance information communicated via the operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) system. A status is identified of one or more WLAN APs in the multi-RAT communications network using the RAN assistance information. A radio node is selected in the cell of the multi-RAT communications network for communication based on selected criteria.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE) operable to select a radio node in a cell of a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) communications network, the UE having circuitry configured to:

determine when to offload data traffic of the UE to a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) in the multi-RAT communications network based on radio access network (RAN) assistance information communicated via the operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) system;

identify a status of one or more WLAN APs in the multi-RAT communications network using the RAN assistance information;

select a radio node in the cell of the multi-RAT communications network for communication based on select criteria;

wherein the status of the one or more WLAN APs is an online status, an offline status, coupled to an internet connection status, a congested status, or a non-congested status;

direct data traffic of the UE to a wireless wide area network (WWAN) node;

when the status of the one or more WLAN APs is the offline status or the congested status;

when no WLAN APs are located in the cell of the communications network; and

when the UE has not received RAN assistance information from a RAN.

2. The circuitry of claim 1, wherein the radio node is a wireless wide area network (WWAN) node or a WLAN AP.

3. The circuitry of claim 1, wherein the select criteria is a status of the one or more WLAN APs.

4. The circuitry of claim 1, wherein the OAM system includes at least one of a WLAN domain manager (DM) element manager (EM), a WLAN network manager (NM), and a WWAN DM EM.

5. The circuitry of claim 3, further configured to select a WLAN AP of the one or more WLAN APs to offload data traffic based, at least in part, on the status of the one or more WLAN APs.

6. The circuitry of claim 1, wherein:

the online status of the WLAN AP indicates that the WLAN AP is actively transmitting data or actively receiving data; and

the offline status of the WLAN AP indicates that the WLAN AP is not actively transmitting data or not actively receiving data.

7. The circuitry of claim 1, further configured to determine to offload data traffic of the UE to a selected WLAN AP when the status of the one or more WLAN APs is the online status and the non-congested status.

8. The circuitry of claim 1, further configured to select a WLAN AP of the one or more WLAN APs to offload data traffic based, at least in part, on using the RAN assistance information.

9. The circuitry of claim 1, further configured to receive RAN assistance information from a RAN via broadcast signaling or dedicated signaling.

10. The circuitry of claim 1, further configured to:

receive WLAN measurements and WLAN information from the one or more WLAN APs;

obtain an offload policy;

from an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) module;

via an open mobile alliance device management (OMA-DM) procedure;

or

pre-configured at the UE; and

select a WLAN AP of the one or more WLAN APs to offload data traffic based, at least in part, on the WLAN measurements, WLAN information, and the offload policy.

11. An evolved node B (eNode B) operable to determine when a user equipment (UE) offloads data traffic to a wireless local area network (WLAN) node in a cell of a communications network, the eNode B having circuitry configured to:

receive, from a WLAN access point (AP) via a network manager (NM) of the communications network, a WLAN AP status report indicating a status of one or more WLAN APs in the cell;

communicate, to the UE, measurement control information identifying a target WLAN AP based on the status of the one or more WLAN APs for the UE to take selected measurements of the targeted WLAN AP;

receive, from the UE, a measurement report of the targeted WLAN AP that includes information of the selected measurements;

communicate a steering command to the UE, wherein the steering command indicates a radio node for the UE to direct selected data traffic to;

determine a number of WLAN APs within the cell of a communications network;

compile a list of WLAN APs available for offloading in the cell of the communications network;

remove a selected WLAN AP from the list of available WLAN APs when the status of the selected WLAN AP changes to an offline status;

remove the selected WLAN AP from the list of available WLAN APs when the status of the selected WLAN AP changes to a congested status;

add a WLAN AP to the list of available WLAN APs when the status of the selected WLAN AP changes to an online status; and

add a WLAN AP to the list of available WLAN APs when the status of the selected WLAN AP changes to a non-congested status.

12. The circuitry of claim 11, wherein the radio node is a wireless wide area network (WWAN) node or a WLAN AP.

13. The circuitry of claim 11, wherein the steering command is based on the measurement report from the UE.

14. The circuitry of claim 11, further configured to:

receive WLAN AP information from an operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) interface; and

determine an availability of one or more WLAN APs using the WLAN AP information of each of the one or more WLAN APs.

15. The circuitry of claim 14, wherein the WLAN AP information includes an identifier of the WLAN AP, media access control (MAC) specifications and physical layer (PHY) specifications of the WLAN AP, a radio frequency parameter of the WLAN AP, state information of the WLAN AP, a location of the WLAN AP, or traffic load information of the WLAN AP.

16. The circuitry of claim 15, wherein the identifier of the WLAN AP is a service set identification (SSID), a basic SSID (BSSID), a roaming consortium list according to an Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11u hotspot 2.0 (HS2.0) standard, a network address identifier (NAI) realm list according to an IEEE 802.11u HS2.0 standard, or a domain name list using fully qualified domain names (FQDN) according to an IEEE 802.11u HS2.0 standard.

17. The circuitry of claim 15, wherein the radio frequency parameter of the WLAN AP is a frequency band or a channel band of the WLAN AP used for communicating data.

18. The circuitry of claim 11, further configured to identify the targeted WLAN AP for the UE to take selected measurements based on a status of the one or more WLAN APs.

19. A product including a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions that are adapted to be executed to implement a method of selecting a wireless local access network (WLAN) access point (AP) in a communications network to offload data traffic of a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

receiving, at the UE, measurement control information from an evolved node B (eNode B) identifying a target WLAN AP for the UE to take selected measurements of the target WLAN AP;

communicating, from the UE, a measurement report to the eNode B of the targeted WLAN AP that includes information of the selected measurements; and

receiving, at the UE, data traffic steering command information from the eNode B, wherein the data traffic steering command information indicates a WLAN AP for the UE to direct data traffic to, wherein a status of the target WLAN AP is an online status, an offline status, coupled to an internet connection status, a congested status, or a non-congested status, such that data traffic of the UE is directed to a wireless wide area network (WWAN) node;

when the status of the one or more WLAN APs is the offline status or the congested status;

when no WLAN APs are located in the cell of the communications network; and

when the UE has not received RAN assistance information from a RAN.

20. The product of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises communicating, to the eNode B, an acknowledgement message from the UE indicating the UE has received a steering command from the eNode B.

21. The product of claim 19, wherein:

the data traffic steering command information for a UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state or a cell dedicated channel (DCH) state; and

the UE is controlled by a network element in the communications network using dedicated traffic steering commands.

22. The product of claim 19, wherein the network element is an open mobile alliance device manager (OMA DM), an operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) network manager (NM), an eNode B, or a radio network controller (RNC).

23. The product of claim 19, wherein the dedicated traffic steering commands are based on the selected measurements of the WLAN AP.

24. The product of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises:

the UE receiving, from the eNode B, WLAN AP identification (ID) information identifying a selected WLAN AP based on the measurement control information to take selected measurements of; and

the UE taking the selected measurements of the selected WLAN AP for the measurement report.

25. The product of claim 19, wherein the target WLAN AP is identified based on a status of one or more WLAN APs.