Cell selection

• US 9,668,188 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2013
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Arunachalam, Jagadeesh, Palenius, Torgny
• Primary Examiner(s): LO, DIANE LEE
• Application Number:
  US14/403,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20150139187A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,461 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0069 in case of dual connectivity, e.g. decoupled uplink/downlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/24 Reselection being triggered by specific parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

When a user equipment, UE, is in a situation involving selection or reselection of radio cell to use in subsequent communication, in addition to the signal strength, the UE considers the feature set supported in the cell. The type of phone, i.e. a “smart phone”, “feature phone”, “Facebook-only phone” etc. can also be considered together with information about the usage history. That is, the usage pattern of the mobile and web browsing history.

Claims

1. A method in a user equipment for controlling selection of a cell of a cellular radio network to support subsequent communication between the user equipment and the network, the method comprising:

obtaining feature information relating to communication features supported in a node that controls radio resource usage in the cell;

detecting signal strength of a signal received from the network; and

selecting, based at least in part on the detected signal strength and the obtained feature information, the cell to support subsequent communication between the user equipment and the network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining type information relating to a type of the user equipment,

obtaining usage history information relating to previous usage of communication services by the user equipment, and

wherein the selection of the cell to support subsequent communication is based also on the obtained type information and the obtained usage history information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of feature information and the detection of signal strength is performed for a plurality of cells, thereby generating a list of candidate cells and wherein the selection of the cell is performed by selecting from the list of candidate cells.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the obtaining of feature information is performed such that a collection of credits is established for each node wherein credits are given for each communication feature supported by the respective node.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

calculating a ranking value for each cell, wherein the ranking value is a function of at least the detected signal strength in the cell, the collection of credits for the node, the type information and the usage history information, and wherein the selection comprises;

comparing the ranking values of cells in the list of candidate cells and selecting the cell having the highest ranking value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the calculation of the ranking value comprises:

assigning a higher ranking value to a first cell that has a number of credits in the collection of credits that is higher by a first credit threshold number than the number of credits in the collection of credits of a second cell, the second cell having a signal strength that is higher by a first signal strength than the signal strength of the first cell.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the calculation of the ranking value comprises:

as a consequence of a determination that the signal strength in the cell is lower than a third threshold signal strength, disregarding the collection of credits in the calculation of the ranking value for the cell.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the calculation of the ranking value comprises:

determining a load value related to the node in the cell, and

if the load value is higher than a threshold load value, disregarding the cell in the selection.

9. The method claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an indicator of at least one communication feature that is supported in the cell.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a user input indicator that indicates a desire to use the displayed at least one communication feature supported in the cell; and

as a consequence of the received user input, performing the selection of the cell based also on the user input indicator.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the cellular network is a third generation partnership project (3GPP) universal terrestrial radio access (UTRA) network, wherein the user equipment is camping on a first cell associated with a serving radio network controller (RNC), and

wherein the obtaining of feature information comprises:

receiving a plurality of system information messages comprising system information blocks (SIBs);

extracting the feature information from the SIBs, the feature information relating to at least a second cell that is neighbouring the first cell; and

wherein the selection of the cell to support subsequent communication comprises;

selecting the second cell to support subsequent communication.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the communication features comprise any of:

support for enhanced cell fast access channel (CELL-FACH) state,

support for paging message reception on cell paging channel (PCH) and thereby autonomous transition to CELL-FACH state,

support for enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) state in CELL-FACH state,

support for high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA),

support for high speed uplink packet access (HSUPA),

support for high speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) discontinuous reception, DRX, reception (DRX) operation in CELL-FACH state, and

support for dual cell communication.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

extracting, from a previously received SIB, an identity of an RNC of the second; and

if the identity of the RNC of the second cell is different than the identity of the SRNC, performing the selection of the second cell to support subsequent communication only if the serving RNC and the RNC of the second cell have a connection via an IuR interface.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

extracting, from a previously received SIB, an identity of an RNC of the second cell; and

if the identity of the RNC of the second cell is equal to the identity of the SRNC, performing the selection of the second cell to support subsequent communication.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the cellular network is a third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) network, wherein the user equipment is camping on a first cell associated with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network NodeB (eNodeB), and

wherein the obtaining of feature information comprises:

receiving a plurality of system information messages comprising system information blocks (SIBs);

extracting the feature information from the SIBs, the feature information relating to at least a second cell that is neighbouring the first cell; and

wherein the selection of the cell to support subsequent communication comprises;

selecting the second cell to support subsequent communication.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the communication features comprise:

support for internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) bearers for UEs in limited service.

17. A user equipment configured to control selection of a cell of a cellular radio network to support subsequent communication between the user equipment and the network, the user equipment comprising control and communication circuitry configured to:

obtain feature information relating to communication features supported in a node that controls radio resource usage in the cell;

detect signal strength of a signal received from the network; and

select, based at least in part on the detected signal strength and the obtained feature information, the cell to support subsequent communication between the user equipment and the network.

18. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium comprising software instructions that, when executed in a processor, performs a method in a user equipment for controlling selection of a cell of a cellular radio network to support subsequent communication between the user equipment and the network, the method comprising:

obtaining feature information relating to communication features supported in a node that controls radio resource usage in the cell;

detecting signal strength of a signal received from the network; and

selecting, based at least in part on the detected signal strength and the obtained feature information, the cell to support subsequent communication between the user equipment and the network.