Reduction of packet retransmissions in dual connectivity systems

A user equipment (UE) operable to support dual connectivity, the UE having computer circuitry configured to:

• receive one or more packets from a secondary evolved node B (SeNB);
• send one or more acknowledgements (ACKs) to a master evolved node B (MeNB) indicating the packets that were successfully received from the SeNB;
• and
• receive remaining packets from the MeNB when an air-interface connection loss occurs between the UE and the SeNB, wherein the MeNB sends the remaining packets to the UE based in part on the ACKs received from the UE and packet delivery information received at the MeNB from the SeNB.

A method for reducing packet retransmissions in a dual connectivity system, the method comprising:

• receiving one or more acknowledgements (ACKs) from a user equipment (UE) indicating packets that were successfully received at the UE from a secondary evolved node B (SeNB);
• receiving one or more negative acknowledgements (NACKs) from the UE indicating packets that were not successfully received at the UE from the SeNB;
• receiving packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)/radio link control (RLC) packet delivery status information for the SeNB and RLC segmentation information for the SeNB;
• receiving an indication from the SeNB of an air-interface connection loss between the SeNB and the UE;
• identifying remaining packets that were not sent from the SeNB to the UE based, in part, on the ACKs/NACKs received from the UE, the PDCP/RLC packet delivery status information and the RLC segmentation information, the remaining packets not being sent from the SeNB to the UE due to the air-interface connection loss between the SeNB and the UE;
• and
• sending the remaining packets from the MeNB to the UE.