Apparatus, method and computer program product providing 3.9G mobile-assisted cell change

1. A method comprising:

detecting whether user equipment operative in a wireless communications network is in an active state;

determining whether at least one trigger condition is satisfied;

in response detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that the at least one trigger condition is satisfied, allowing the user equipment to perform an autonomous cell change of the user equipment from a serving cell to a neighbor cell; and

in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that each of the at least one trigger condition is not satisfied, performing a network-controlled cell change of the user equipment from the serving cell to a network determined neighbor cell.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications network is a 3.9G network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications network is an E-UTRAN network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition comprises a discontinuous reception period being longer than a specified time.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the specified time is set by the network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition corresponds to a quality level of the serving cell falling below a certain pre-defined level.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition corresponds to an offset between the serving cell and the neighbor cell of a connection characteristic persisting for a predetermined period of time.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the connection characteristic corresponds to power.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the connection characteristic corresponds to a signal quality measure.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition corresponds to a handover command being delayed for a period of time during which a characteristic of the serving cell becomes less than a threshold limit.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition further comprises a characteristic of the serving cell persisting at less than a threshold limit for a predetermined period of time.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition concerns requirements for a connection type.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one trigger condition is related to a history of past services that the user equipment has used.

14. An apparatus comprising at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and including computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

to detect whether a user equipment is in active state;

to determine whether at least one trigger condition is satisfied;

in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that the at lease one trigger condition is satisfied, to allow the user equipment to perform an autonomous cell change of the user equipment from a serving cell to a neighbor cell; and

in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that each of the at least one trigger condition is not satisfied, performing a network-controlled cell change of the user equipment from the serving cell to a network determined neighbor cell.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , where the apparatus is embodied in at least one integrated circuit.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition comprises a discontinuous reception period being longer than a specified time.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition corresponds to a quality level of the serving cell falling below a certain pre-defined level.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition corresponds to an offset between the serving cell and the neighbor cell of a connection characteristic persisting for a predetermined period of time.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the connection characteristic corresponds to power.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the connection characteristic corresponds to a signal quality measure.

21. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition corresponds to a handover command being delayed for a period of time during which a characteristic of the serving cell becomes less than a threshold limit.

22. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition further comprises a characteristic of the serving cell persisting at less than a threshold limit for a predetermined period of time.

23. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition concerns requirements for a connection type.

24. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one trigger condition is related to a history of past services that the user equipment has used.

25. A computer readable medium tangibly encoded with, a computer program executable by digital processing apparatus to perform actions comprising:

detecting whether user equipment operative in a wireless communications network is in an active state;

determining whether at least one trigger condition is satisfied;

in response detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that the at least one trigger condition is satisfied, allowing the user equipment to perform an autonomous cell change of the user equipment from a serving cell to a neighbor cell; and in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that each of the at least one trigger condition is not satisfied, performing a network-controlled cell change of the user equipment from the serving cell to a network determined neighbor cell.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 25 wherein the digital processing apparatus is embodied in the user equipment.

27. An apparatus comprising at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

detecting whether a user equipment is in an active state;

determining whether at least one trigger condition is satisfied for the user equipment;

communicating to the user equipment that is it authorized to perform an autonomous cell change in response to detecting that: the user equipment is in the active state and determining that the least one trigger condition is satisfied; and

in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that each of the at least one trigger condition is not satisfied, performing a network-controlled cell change of the user equipment from the serving cell to a network determined neighbor cell.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 , where the at least one trigger condition comprises a discontinuous reception period being longer than a specified time.

29. An apparatus comprising:

means for detecting whether a user equipment operative in a wireless communications network is in an active state:

means for determining whether at least one trigger condition is satisfied;

means for allowing the user equipment to perform an autonomous cell change of the user equipment from a serving cell to a neighbor cell in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that the at least one trigger condition is satisfied; and

means for performing a network-controlled cell change of the user equipment from the serving cell to a network determined neighbor cell in response to detecting that the user equipment is in the active state and determining that each of the at least one trigger condition is not satisfied.