Enhanced cellular connectivity via opportunistic extension of RRC connected mode

Abstract

Systems and methods for extending connectivity with a cellular network are disclosed herein. A UE may monitor a serving cell of the UE and a neighbor cell of the UE to determine whether there is a network condition wherein the UE is to transition to an out-of-service (OOS) state if it were to fall to an Radio Resource Control (RRC) Idle state. The UE may react by, before expiration of an inactivity period corresponding to a transition to an RRC Idle mode, initiating signaling activity with a radio access network (RAN) node of the serving cell. In other embodiments, the UE may determine, based on a number of secondary devices connected to the UE, to initiate signaling with the RAN node of the serving cell before expiration of an inactivity period and according to whether a maximum number of extensions of an extension activity period has been reached.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.