US 11,991,569 B2
Handover management in a communications network configured to support multi-RAT dual connectivity
Debasish Sarkar, Irvine, CA (US); Surajit Mondal, Bangalore (IN); Shikha Singh, Haryana (IN); Ayan Sen, Bangalore (IN); and Aruna Mani, New Delhi (IN)
Assigned to Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), Stockholm (SE)
Appl. No. 18/252,875
Filed by TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL), Stockholm (SE)
PCT Filed Dec. 31, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/062601
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date May 12, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/144582, PCT Pub. Date Jul. 7, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0345317 A1, Oct. 26, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 36/00 (2009.01); H04W 36/30 (2009.01); H04W 76/15 (2018.01)
CPC H04W 36/0069 (2018.08) [H04W 36/0085 (2018.08); H04W 36/30 (2013.01); H04W 76/15 (2018.02)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A handover (HO) management method performed by an anchor node serving a dual connectivity (DC) user equipment (UE), the anchor node configured as a master node of a source cell operating in a first radio access technology (RAT) with respect to a secondary node operating in a second RAT, the master node and the secondary node connected via an inter-nodal interface, the method comprising:
receiving a measurement report from the UE, the measurement report containing information relating to one or more neighbor cells operating in the first RAT;
responsive to the measurement report, selecting a particular neighbor cell as a target cell for handing over the UE;
determining that there is traffic with the secondary node over the inter-nodal interface;
responsive to determining that a handover modulation criterion exceeds a threshold value, performing a handover of the UE to the target cell;
responsive to determining that the handover modulation criterion is less than or equal to the threshold value, performing a quality degradation prediction with respect to the UE to estimate a likelihood of service failure for the UE; and
responsive to determining that the likelihood of service failure does not exceed a probability threshold, suppressing handover of the UE to the target cell,
wherein the handover modulation criterion comprises one of:
(i) a difference between the source cell's Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) and the target cell's RSRP being greater than the threshold value, comprising a neighbor cell interference parameter, by an offset; and
(ii) a difference between the source cell's Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) and the target cell's RSRQ being greater than the threshold value, comprising a neighbor cell quality threshold, by an offset.