Bearer selection for dual connectivity cellular systems

A Long-Term Evolution (LTE) base station, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the LTE base station to perform actions comprising:
• receiving data of a first network data bearer from a user equipment, the first network data bearer having a first pair of values for a Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) parameter and an Allocation and Retention Priority (ARP) parameter, respectively;
• determining that the first pair of values corresponds to LTE radio access technology;
• in response to determining that the first pair of values corresponds to LTE radio access technology, steering the data of the first network data bearer through a LTE base station;
• receiving data of a second network data bearer from the user equipment, the second network data bearer having a second pair of values for the QCI and ARP parameters, respectively;
• determining that the second pair of values corresponds to New Radio (NR) radio access technology;
• determining that a NR signal quality between the second data bearer and the user equipment is greater than a signal quality threshold;
• determining that a NR queue associated with the second network data bearer is greater than a size threshold;
• and
• in response to determining that the second pair of values corresponds to NR radio access technology, the NR signal quality is greater than the signal quality threshold, and the NR queue is greater than the size threshold, steering a first portion of the data of the second network data bearer through an NR base station and a second portion of the data of the second network data bearer through the LTE base station.

A system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform actions comprising:
• receiving, from a user equipment, a first combination of values for the two or more QoS parameters;
• determining that a first network data bearer has the first combination of values for two or more Quality of Service (QoS) parameters;
• in response to determining that the first network data bearer has the first combination of values, steering first data of the first network data bearer through a first base station that implements a first radio access technology;
• determining that a data queue associated with the first radio access technology exceeds a size threshold;
• in response to determining the data queue exceeds the size threshold, implementing a second radio access technology associated with the first network data bearer;
• determining that a first signal quality associated with the first radio technology is less than a signal quality threshold;
• receiving, from the user equipment, a second combination of values for the two or more QoS parameters;
• establishing a second network data bearer, the second network data bearer having the second combination of values for the two or more QoS parameters;
• and
• in response to determining that the first signal quality for the first network data bearer is less than the signal quality threshold, steering second data of the first network data bearer through the second network data bearer that implements the second radio access technology.