Methods and systems for wireless communication in heterogeneous networks
View Patent ↗Systems, methods, and apparatuses for data and/or control offloading and handover in heterogeneous wireless communication networks are provided. Data and/or control packets can be offloaded to a coordinating base station while a user equipment (UE) remains associated with its serving cell. The packets are still transferred between the serving base station and the core network, and the offloaded data and/or control packets are forwarded from the serving base station to the coordinating base station for transmission to the UE. Furthermore, during a handover process, the serving base station and coordinating base station may independently schedule and send a handover command to the UE to reduce the radio link failure rate.
1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:
offloading data from a first serving base station to a second serving base station;
sending a measurement report to the first serving base station;
receiving a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message from the second serving base station, wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message indicates a handover from the first serving base station to the second serving base station; and
connecting to the second serving base station based on the RRC connection reconfiguration message.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising disconnecting with the first serving base station.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message is received on radio resources scheduled by the second serving base station.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measurement report is determined based on uplink signal quality.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the RRC connection reconfiguration message from the first serving base station.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first serving base station is a macro cell and the second serving base station is a low power cell.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measurement report includes measurements associated with neighboring base stations that are selected by a user equipment (UE).
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message is forwarded from the first serving base station to the second serving base station.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message is included in a handover forward request message.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message includes mobility information associated with a user equipment (UE).
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first serving base station is selected by a user equipment (UE) for sending the measurement report.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second serving base station is identified when received signal quality with respect to the second serving base station at a user equipment (UE) is above a predetermined threshold.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the predetermined threshold is transmitted to the UE by the first serving base station.
14. A method for wireless communication, comprising:
receiving offloaded data from a second serving base station;
receiving a measurement report;
determining a target base station for handover;
transmitting a handover forward request message to the target base station, the handover forward request message including a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message; and
transmitting the RRC connection reconfiguration message to a user equipment (UE).
15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising disconnecting with the UE.
16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising receiving a handover forward request acknowledgement message from the at least one base station.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the target base station is determined based on the measurement report.
18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the measurement report includes measurements associated with neighboring base stations that are selected by the UE.
19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining the at least one base station for transmitting the handover forward request message based on the measurement report.
20. The method of claim 14 , further comprising performing a handover initialization procedure with the at least one base station.
21. The method of claim 14 , wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message includes mobility information associated with the UE.
22. The method of claim 14 , wherein the at least one base station transmits the RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE subsequent to receiving the handover forward request message.
23. The method of claim 14 , wherein the UE is connected with the at least one base station.
24. The method of claim 14 , wherein the at least one base station is identified when received signal quality with respect to the at least one base station at the UE is above a predetermined threshold.
25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising transmitting the predetermined threshold to the UE.
26. A user equipment (UE) configured to:
offload data from a first serving base station to a second serving base station;
send a measurement report to the first serving base station;
receive a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message from the second serving base station, wherein the RRC connection reconfiguration message indicates a handover from the first serving base station to the second serving base station; and
connect to the second serving second base station based on the RRC connection reconfiguration message.
27. A base station configured to:
receiving offloaded data from a second serving base station;
receive a measurement report;
determine a target base station for handover;
transmit a handover forward request message to the target base station, the handover forward request message including a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message; and
transmit the RRC connection reconfiguration message to a user equipment (UE).