Cell Selection in Soft Handover Using User Equipments' Buffer Occupancies as Occupancies as a Selection Criterion
AssigneeFujitsu Limited
InventorSaied Abedi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Soft handover techniques are disclosed for use in a system comprising a base station and a plurality of user equipments. The amount of data in the data buffer of each of the user equipments is determined, the amount of data in the data buffers is compared to obtain a relative indicator, the relative indicator indicating how full a user equipment's data buffer is in comparison to the data buffers of the other user equipments, and a base station is selected as an active base station in dependence on the relative indicator.
Claims34
A method of selecting an active base station for use during soft handover, the active base station being for receiving data from a plurality of user equipments, the method comprising:
- determining the amount of data in the data buffer of each of the user equipments;
- comparing the amount of data in the data buffers of the user equipments to obtain a relative indicator, the relative indicator indicating how full a user equipment's data buffer is in comparison to the data buffers of the other user equipments;
- and
- selecting a base station as an active base station in dependence on the relative indicator.
A base station for receiving data from a plurality of user equipments, the base station comprising:
- a determining unit which determines the amount of data in the data buffer of each of the user equipments;
- a comparing unit which compares the amount of data in the data buffers of the user equipments to obtain a relative indicator, the relative indicator indicating how full a user equipment's data buffer is in comparison to the data buffers of the other user equipments;
- a transmitting unit which transmits the relative indicator;
- a receiving unit which receives a signal indicating whether the base station has been selected as an active base station for a user equipment;
- and
- an allocating unit which allocates a channel to the user equipment if the base station has been selected as an active base station.
A user equipment comprising:
- a data buffer;
- a transmitting unit which transmits to a base station information concerning an amount of data to be transmitted;
- a receiving unit which receives from a base station a relative indicator, the relative indicator indicating how full the data buffer is in comparison to the data buffers of other user equipments served by that base station;
- and
- a selecting unit which selects the base station as an active base station based on the relative indicator.
(canceled)
A communications system comprising:
- a base station for receiving data from a plurality of user equipments, the base station comprising:
- a determining unit which determines the amount of data in the data buffer of each of the user equipments;
- a comparing unit which compares the amount of data in the data buffers of the user equipments to obtain a relative indicator, the relative indicator indicating how full a user equipment's data buffer is in comparison to the data buffers of the other user equipments;
- a transmitting unit which transmits the relative indicator;
- a receiving unit which receives a signal indicating whether the base station has been selected as an active base station for a user equipment;
- and
- an allocating unit which allocates a channel to the user equipment if the base station has been selected as an active base station;
- and
- a user equipment comprising;
- a data buffer;
- a transmitting unit which transmits to said base station information concerning an amount of data to be transmitted;
- a receiving unit which receives from said base station said relative indicator, the relative indicator indicating how full the data buffer is in comparison to the data buffers of other user equipments served by that base station;
- and
- a selecting unit which selects the base station as an active base station based on the relative indicator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.