Systems, methods, and devices for cell selection based on prioritized nodes
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for cell selection and/or reselection based on prioritize nodes are disclosed herein. User equipment (UE) may be configured to determine whether to select and/or reselect an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB). The eNB may be a dedicated eNB and/or may be communicatively coupled to a dedicated core network (CN). The dedicated eNB and/or the dedicated CN may be configured to optimize performance for UEs sharing particular characteristics. Accordingly, the selection and/or reselection criteria may be biased to encourage the UE to select and/or reselect towards a dedicated eNB and/or an eNB coupled to a dedicated CN. The eNB and/or CN may be dedicated to supporting particular types of UEs, types of nodes, types of traffic, types of subscriptions, UE mobilities, applications/services, other predetermined categories, and/or the like.
1. User equipment (UE) configured to communicate with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), the UE comprising:
a transceiver; and
a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to:
measure a signal from an E-UTRAN Node B (eNB);
determine whether the eNB supports a corresponding dedicated node; and
compute a cell selection criterion from the signal measurement and the determination of whether the eNB supports the dedicated node,
wherein when the eNB does not support a corresponding dedicated node, the processor is further configured to:
determine whether a neighboring eNB supports a corresponding dedicated node,
measure a signal from the neighboring eNB,
compute a reselection criterion for the neighboring eNB, and
determine whether the reselection criterion exceeds a threshold.
2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the eNB supports a dedicated node selected from the group consisting of a dedicated radio access network (RAN) node and a dedicated core network node.
3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the eNB supports a particular application/service, and compute the cell selection criterion based on the determination of whether the eNB supports the particular application/service.
4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the eNB is associated with a predetermined category, and compute the cell selection criterion based on the determination of whether the eNB is associated with the predetermined category.
5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to select the threshold based on whether the neighboring eNB supports the corresponding dedicated node.
6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether the eNB supports the dedicated node by receiving a system information block (SIB) from the eNB.
7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether a mobility management entity (MME) is a dedicated MME by receiving an MME identifier indicative of whether the MME is a dedicated MME.