Method for providing multicast/broadcast service continuity for mobile terminals

A user equipment (UE) for providing service continuity when the UE is about to move out of coverage of a corresponding Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), the UE being configured to:

• receive MBMS related data, as part of a group communications service, via an MBMS bearer;
• detect that the UE is suffering from a bad MBMS bearer condition for the corresponding MBMS service;
• inform a server of the bad MBMS conditions to initiate switching to establish a unicast bearer;
• wherein, if there is downlink data to deliver during switching, the UE is configured to begin to receive the downlink data via unicast and to continue to receive downlink data via the MBMS bearer until the switching to establish the unicast bearer is complete;
• and
• ceasing to receive the downlink data via the MBMS bearer and continuing to receive data via the unicast bearer;
• wherein, the UE is configured to determine a quality of the MBMS bearer relative to a threshold for indicating that the MBMS bearer quality is not acceptable, wherein when the threshold is reached, the UE is configured to send a message to the server accordingly, and wherein the threshold used to indicate MBMS bearer quality is dependent on a service type.

A method performed by user equipment (UE) for providing service continuity when the UE is about to move out of coverage of a corresponding Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), the method comprising:

• receiving MBMS related data, as part of a group communications service, via an MBMS bearer;
• detecting that the UE is suffering from a bad MBMS bearer condition for the corresponding MBMS service;
• informing a server of the bad MBMS conditions to initiate switching to establish a unicast bearer;
• wherein, if there is downlink data to deliver during switching, the UE begins to receive the downlink data via unicast but continues to receive downlink data via the MBMS bearer until the switching to establish the unicast bearer is complete;
• and
• ceasing to receive the downlink data via the MBMS bearer and continuing to receive data via the unicast bearer;
• wherein, the user equipment determines a quality of the MBMS bearer relative to a threshold for indicating that the MBMS bearer quality is not acceptable, wherein when the threshold is reached the UE sends a message to the server accordingly, and wherein the threshold used to indicate MBMS bearer quality is dependent on a service type.

An application server for providing service continuity when a user equipment (UE) is about to move out of coverage of a corresponding Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), the application server being configured to:

• transmit MBMS related data, as part of a group communications service, via an MBMS bearer;
• receive from the UE a notification informing the server of a bad MBMS conditions to initiate switching to establish unicast transmission;
• wherein, if there is downlink data to deliver during switching, the server is configured to begin to transmit the downlink data via unicast and to continue to transmit downlink data via the MBMS bearer until the switching to establish a unicast bearer is complete;
• and
• ceasing to transmit the downlink data via the MBMS bearer and continuing to transmit data via the unicast bearer;
• wherein when a threshold for indicating that the MBMS bearer quality is reached, the application server is to configured to receive a message from the UE to indicate that the UE has determined that a quality of the MBMS bearer relative to the threshold is not acceptable and wherein the threshold used to indicate MBMS bearer quality is dependent on the service type.

A method performed by an application server for providing service continuity when a user equipment (UE) is about to move out of coverage of a corresponding Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), the method comprising:

• transmitting MBMS related data, as part of a group communications service, via an MBMS bearer;
• receiving from the UE a notification informing the server of a bad MBMS conditions to initiate switching to establish unicast transmission;
• wherein, if there is downlink data to deliver during switching, the server is configured to begin to transmit the downlink data via unicast and to continue to transmit downlink data via the MBMS bearer until the switching to establish a unicast bearer is complete;
• and
• ceasing to transmit the downlink data via the MBMS bearer and continuing to transmit data via the unicast bearer;
• wherein when a threshold for indicating that the MBMS bearer quality is reached, the application server is to configured to receive a message from the UE to indicate that the UE has determined that a quality of the MBMS bearer relative to the threshold is not acceptable and wherein the threshold used to indicate MBMS bearer quality is dependent on the service type.