Technique seamless handoff of a mobile terminal user from a wireless telephony network to a wireless LAN
AssigneeThomson Licensing
InventorsShaily Verma, Guillaume Bichot
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile terminal user (16) can trigger a handoff from a first radio access node (18) to a second radio access node (30) in a communications network by making such a request to one of the two nodes. The request made by the mobile terminal user (16) will trigger in the network (10) a command to relocate (handoff) the mobile terminal user. In response to the command, the mobile terminal user is assigned to the second radio access node (30) and is released from the first radio access node (18).
Claims15
A method for effecting a seamless hand-off of a mobile terminal user in a communications network from a first radio access mechanism to a second radio access mechanism, comprising the steps of:
- receiving in a communications network a forced hand-off request from a mobile terminal user in the form of one of a routing area (RA) update request or a manipulated reduced signal strength report to initiate a forced hand-off request to the second radio access mechanism;
- triggering in the network a command to relocate (hand-off) the mobile terminal user to the second radio access mechanism from the first radio access mechanism in response to the forced hand-off request made by the mobile terminal user to relocate to the second radio access mechanism;
- responsive to the command, assigning the mobile terminal user to the second radio access mechanism;
- and
- releasing the first radio access node from the mobile terminal user.
A system for effecting a seamless hand-off of a mobile terminal user in a communications network from a first radio access mechanism to a second radio access mechanism, comprising:
- means for receiving in a communications network a forced hand-off request from a mobile terminal user in the form of one of a routing area (RA) update request or a manipulated reduced signal strength report to initiate a forced hand-off request to the second radio access mechanism;
- means for triggering in the network a command to relocate (hand-off) the mobile terminal user to the second radio access mechanism from the first radio access node in response to a request made by the mobile terminal user to relocate to the second radio access mechanism;
- means for assigning the mobile terminal user to the second radio access mechanism responsive to the command to relocate the mobile terminal user;
- and
- means for releasing the first radio access mechanism from the mobile terminal user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.