Call preservation on handover
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsTakahito Yoshizawa, Indermeet Singh Gandhi, Swaminathan A. Anantha, Yuyong Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an example, a wireless communication system and apparatuses thereof are described. In an example long-term evolution (LTE) network, a first base station hands over a connection to a second base station. The first base station may be a (femto) home eNodeB (HeNB) or (macro) eNodeB. The second base station may also be a HeNB or eNodeB connected to a different gateway. The first base station may send “Handover Request” on an X2 connection, identifying the gateway that the second base station is connected to as the correct gateway. After sending a “Handover Request Acknowledgement,” the second base station correctly establishes a tunnel to a connected gateway device.
Claims20
A base station to maintain mobile device connectivity during handover between base stations connected to different gateways, the base station comprising:
- one or more computer processors;
- a first network interface operable to connect the base station to a first network, wherein the base station is a source base station;
- a second network interface operable to connect the base station to a second network comprising a target base station;
- and
- a memory containing a program executable by the one or more computer processors to, upon determining that a mobile device on the first network has a distance-attenuated signal to the source base station, perform a handover of the mobile device from the source base station to the target base station, comprising:
- upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to a same gateway, providing an uplink tunnel endpoint (UTE) identifier of the gateway in a UTE field of a handover request, the handover request specifying an address of a serving gateway with which to establish a virtual tunnel endpoint, wherein the handover request is sent to the target base station;
- and
- upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to different gateways including first and second gateways, respectively, the first gateway comprising the serving gateway, selecting a UTE identifier of the second gateway to include in the UTE field of the handover request, in order to prevent, during the handover, a connection failure resulting from the target base station failing to establish the virtual tunnel endpoint to the serving gateway due to connectivity via an intermediate gateway, wherein the handover request is sent to the target base station.
One or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable mediums having stored thereon executable instructions operable to instruct one or more computer processors to perform an operation to maintain mobile device connectivity during handover between base stations connected to different gateways, the instructions including:
- instructions to, upon determining that a mobile device on a first network has a distance-attenuated signal to a source base station, perform a handover of the mobile device from the source base station to a target base station, comprising:
- instructions to, upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to a same gateway, provide an uplink tunnel endpoint (UTE) identifier of the gateway in a UTE field of a handover request, the handover request specifying an address of a serving gateway with which to establish a virtual tunnel endpoint, wherein the handover request is sent to the target base station;
- and
- instructions to, upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to different gateways including first and second gateways, respectively, the first gateway comprising a serving gateway, select a UTE identifier of the second gateway to include in the UTE field of the handover request, in order to prevent, during the handover, a connection failure resulting from the target base station failing to establish the virtual tunnel endpoint to the serving gateway due to connectivity via an intermediate gateway, wherein the handover request is sent to the target base station.
A mobile communication network gateway comprising a serving gateway to maintain user equipment connectivity during handover between base stations connected to different gateways, the serving gateway comprising:
- one or more computer processors;
- a network interface operable to communicatively couple a device to a network;
- and
- a memory containing a program executable by the one or more computer processors to:
- receive on the network a request to modify a bearer from a source base station to a target base station, wherein a user equipment connected to the source base station experiences a distance-attenuated signal that triggers a handover from the source base station to the target base station, the handover having an associated handover request designating an address of a serving gateway with which to establish a virtual tunnel endpoint;
- upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to a same gateway, generate a response identifying the gateway, after which the response is sent to the network;
- and
- upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to different gateways including first and second gateways, respectively, the first gateway comprising the serving gateway, selecting an identifier of the second gateway to include in a response to the request, in order to prevent, during the handover, a connection failure resulting from the target base station failing to establish the virtual tunnel endpoint to the serving gateway due to connectivity via an intermediate gateway, wherein the response is sent to the network.
One or more tangible, non-transitory computer-readable mediums having stored thereon executable instructions operable to instruct one or more computer processors to perform an operation to maintain user equipment connectivity during handover between base stations connected to different gateways, the operation comprising:
- providing a network interface operable to communicatively couple a device to a network;
- receiving via the network a request to modify a bearer from a source base station to a target base station, wherein a user equipment connected to the source base station experiences a distance-attenuated signal that triggers a handover from the source base station to the target base station, the handover request specifying an address of a serving gateway to establish a virtual tunnel endpoint to;
- upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to a same gateway, generating a response identifying the gateway, after which the response is sent to the network;
- and
- upon a determination that the source and target base stations are connected to different gateways including first and second gateways, respectively, the first gateway comprising the serving gateway, selecting an identifier of the second gateway to include in a response to the request, in order to prevent, during the handover, a connection failure resulting from the target base station failing to establish the virtual tunnel endpoint to the serving gateway due to connectivity via an intermediate gateway, wherein the response is sent to the network.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.