Methods and Apparatus for Measurement and Connectivity Control in Macro-Assisted Heterogeneous Network

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for UE-centric measurement and connectivity control in macro-assisted heterogeneous network. In one novel aspect, the UE establishes a connection with a macro base station in a heterogeneous wireless network. The UE collects and analyzes UE status information locally. Subsequently, the UE autonomously initiates access to a small cell base station if access criteria are met based on the locally collected UE status information. In one embodiment, the UE informs the macro base station and the one or more small-cell base stations of the small-cell base station. In another embodiment, the UE starts a supervise timer before initiating access the one or more small-cell base stations and autonomously initiates a subsequent accessing procedure to another small cell base station upon detecting an access failure until the supervising timer expires. The UE stops the access procedure upon the supervise timer expires.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.