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US 9,807,654 B2Granted
Mobility in heterogeneous network environments
AssigneeNokia Solutions and Networks Oy
InventorsVinh Van Phan, Ling Yu, Kari Veikko Horneman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There is provided a method, including requesting, by a network element of a macro cell network infrastructure, a local cell access point operating within the macro cell to either activate or deactivate a local cell control plane with respect to active user equipment of the local cell, wherein the local cell access point continues to provide a user plane to the active user equipment; and receiving a response to the request.
Claims17
An apparatus, comprising:
- at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to:
- request a local cell access point operating within a macro cell to activate a local cell control plane with respect to active user equipment of the local cell, wherein the local cell access point continues to provide a user plane to the active user equipment and the macro cell provides a macro cell control plane to the active user equipment before the request;
- cause a reception of a response from the local cell access point indicating that the local cell access point has established the local cell control plane, wherein the response carries a configuration of the established local cell control plane;
- cause a transmission of an indication of the configuration to the active user equipment via the existing macro cell control plane;
- detect that the established local cell control plane is active;
- and
- release the macro cell control plane with respect to the active user equipment.
4 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to:
- request a local cell access point operating within a macro cell to deactivate a local cell control plane with respect to active user equipment of the local cell, wherein the local cell access point continues to provide a user plane to the active user equipment and the local cell access point provides local cell control plane to the active user equipment before the request;
- establish a macro cell control plane for the active user equipment;
- indicate a configuration of the established macro cell control plane to the local cell access point in order to enable the local cell access point to inform the active user equipment about the configuration;
- cause the reception of the response from at least one of the active user equipment via the established macro cell control plane, wherein the response indicates that the established macro cell control plane is ready to be used;
- and
- cause a transmission of a message to the local cell access point, wherein the message indicates that the established macro cell control plane is active.
4 more elements
A method, comprising:
- requesting a local cell access point operating within a macro cell to activate a local cell control plane with respect to active user equipment of the local cell, wherein the local cell access point continues to provide a user plane to the active user equipment and the macro cell provides a macro cell control plane to the active user equipment before the request;
- causing a reception of a response from the local cell access point indicating that the local cell access point has established the local cell control plane, wherein the response carries a configuration of the established local cell control plane;
- causing a transmission of an indication of the configuration to the active user equipment via the existing macro cell control plane;
- detecting that the established local cell control plane is active;
- and
- releasing the macro cell control plane with respect to the active user equipment.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.