Enhancing quality of service for high priority services

A user equipment device (UE), the UE comprising:

• a radio, comprising one or more antennas configured for wireless communication, wherein the radio is configured to communicate using at least a first radio access technology (RAT), wherein the first RAT comprises a packet switched RAT;
• and
• a processing element coupled to the radio;
• wherein the radio and the processing element are configured to:
• establish a first bearer having first quality of service (QoS) characteristics associated with a first priority, wherein the first bearer is a dedicated IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) signaling bearer used only for IMS signaling messages, wherein the first bearer is a default IMS signaling bearer, wherein the first QoS characteristics are identified by a QoS class identifier (QCI) value of 5;
• establish a second bearer having second QoS characteristics associated with a second priority lower than the first priority, wherein the second bearer is also a dedicated IMS signaling bearer used only for IMS signaling messages, wherein the second QoS characteristics are identified by a QCI value other than 5;
• using the first bearer for communication for a first set of IMS signaling messages having the first priority;
• and
• using the second bearer for communication for a second set of IMS signaling messages having the second priority.

An apparatus for implementation within a user equipment device (UE), comprising:

• one or more processing elements, wherein the one or more processing elements are configured to:
• establish a default bearer for first IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) signaling messages, wherein the default bearer is a dedicated IMS signaling bearer used only for IMS signaling messages, wherein the default bearer is associated with first QoS characteristics identified by a QoS class identifier (QCI) value of 5;
• use the default bearer for IMS signaling messages having a first priority;
• in response to second IMS signaling messages of a second priority, lower than the first priority, establish a second bearer for IMS signaling messages, wherein the second bearer is also a dedicated IMS signaling bearer used only for IMS signaling messages, wherein the second bearer is associated with second QOS characteristics identified by a value other than 5;
• use the second bearer for the IMS signaling messages of the second priority.