Granted Patent B2

US 9,161,281 · App. 13/780,911 · Granted Oct 13, 2015

Abstract

Claims (40)

1. A method at a user equipment operating in a mobile network having a first node with a first radio access technology and a second node with a second radio access technology, the method comprising:

receiving, from the first node a request to perform an inter-radio access technology neighbor cell measurement;

performing the inter-radio access technology neighbor cell measurement; and

providing a report to the first network node, the report including an indication of whether a neighbor cell supports inter-radio access technology carrier aggregation, wherein inter-radio access technology carrier aggregation allows for concurrent utilization of radio resources of the first radio access technology of the first node and radio resources of the second radio access technology of the second node.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication is a single bit.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a request to connect to the second node.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the request includes information to assist the user equipment to connect to the second node.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the information includes a random access preamble to be used by the user equipment for the connection.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the information includes synchronization information for the second node.

7. The method of claim 3 , further comprising establishing a connection with the second node, the establishing including sending a user equipment identifier for the user equipment on the first node to the second node.

8. A method at a user equipment communicating with both a first node having a first radio access technology and a second node having a second radio access technology, the second node having a tunnel to a core network, the method comprising:

receiving a protocol layer packet from the first node at the user equipment; and

at a first radio access technology protocol layer corresponding to the protocol layer packet:

removing a multi-radio access technology header;

ordering the packet; and

forwarding the packet to a second radio access technology protocol layer corresponding to the first radio access technology protocol layer;

wherein the user equipment communicates concurrently with the first node via resources associated with the first radio access technology protocol layer and with the second node via resources associated with the second radio access technology protocol layer.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first radio access technology protocol layer is a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the removing the multi-radio access technology header further comprising skipping other PDCP layer functionality.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising removing a PDCP header before removing the multi-radio access technology header.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first radio access technology protocol layer is a radio link control (RLC) layer.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising receiving an RLC protocol data unit (PDU) segment size for a transmission opportunity.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the removing the multi-radio access technology header further comprising skipping other RLC layer functionality.

15. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first radio access technology protocol layer is a medium access control (MAC) layer.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein, after the removing the multi-radio access technology header, the packet is treated as a MAC service data unit.

17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising receiving an MAC protocol data unit (PDU) segment size for a transmission opportunity.

18. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first radio access technology protocol layer is an internet protocol (IP) layer.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein a further multi-radio access technology protocol layer is used to handle radio access technology selection.

20. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first radio access technology protocol layer is a multi-radio access technology protocol layer.

21. The method of claim 8 , further comprising combining identical packets received from the first node and the second node.

22. A method for carrier aggregation at a user equipment operating in a mobile network having a first node with a first radio access technology and a second node with a second radio access technology, the method comprising:

reporting that the user equipment is capable of inter-radio access technology carrier aggregation to the first node;

receiving, at the user equipment, a connection request to connect to the second node, the connection request including connection information for the second node; and

establishing a connection with the second node based on the connection information in the connection request;

wherein inter-radio access technology carrier aggregation allows for concurrent utilization of radio resources of the first radio access technology of the first node and radio resources of the second radio access technology of the second node.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the connection information includes a random access preamble.

24. The method claim 22 , wherein the connection information includes synchronization information for the second node.

25. The method of claim 22 , further comprising, once the connection is established with the second node, transmitting identical data simultaneously to both the first node and the second node.

26. The method of claim 22 , further comprising, once the connection is established with the second node, transmitting different data to each of the first node and the second node during a transmission time interval.

27. The method of claim 22 , further comprising receiving, from the first node, an indication of whether communication with the second node is symmetrical.

Assignments (7)