Content-aware inter-RAT RAB steering

1. A method, comprising:

detecting congestion at an eNodeB and entering a congestion control mode;

receiving, at the eNodeB, a new user equipment (UE) connection request that contains a radio resource control (RRC) establishment cause;

determining, at the eNodeB, a priority of the new UE connection request based on the RRC establishment cause, wherein the priority of the new UE connection request is based on a RRC establishment cause in the new UE connection request; and

identifying, at the eNodeB, the congestion management strategy based on the priority of the new UE connection request, the congestion management strategy comprising both of initiating a handover for an existing LTE bearer and redirecting the new UE connection request to a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) eNodeB, the multi-RAT eNodeB having LTE and 3G radio capability.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting congestion at the eNodeB is performed at the eNodeB.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting congestion at the eNodeB is performed at a coordinating server.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the eNodeB is a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) eNodeB with an integrated UMTS nodeB.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using a quality of service class identifier (QCI) of the existing LTE bearer to determine whether to evacuate the existing LTE bearer.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the congestion management strategy comprises initiating a handover for an existing LTE bearer if the new UE connection request has an RRC establishment cause of either emergency or high priority access.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising redirecting the new UE connection request that is a request for a packet-switched (PS) data connection to a multi-RAT eNodeB.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising redirecting a mobile originating data connection request to a multi-RAT eNodeB.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a plurality of LTE bearers to be handed over from lowest to highest QCI value.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exiting the congestion control mode once congestion at the eNodeB is resolved.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising redirecting multi-RAT connections back to the LTE eNodeB once congestion at the eNodeB is resolved.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting congestion by tracking one or more of: processor load; physical resource block (PRB) usage; physical downlink control channel control channel elements (PDCCH CCEs); number of total user equipments served; and backhaul bandwidth utilization.

13. A non-transitory digital storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a base station, causes the computer to perform steps comprising:

detecting congestion at an eNodeB and entering a congestion control mode;

receiving, at the eNodeB, a new user equipment (UE) connection request that contains a radio resource control (RRC) establishment cause;

determining, at the eNodeB, a priority of the new UE connection request based on the RRC establishment cause, wherein the priority of the new UE connection request is based on a RRC establishment cause in the new UE connection request; and

identifying, at the eNodeB, the congestion management strategy based on the priority of the new UE connection request, the congestion management strategy comprising both of initiating a handover for an existing LTE bearer and redirecting the new UE connection request to a multi-radio access technology (multi-RAT) eNodeB, the multi-RAT eNodeB having LTE and 3G radio capability.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the RRC establishment cause is one of emergency; high priority access; mobile terminating access; mobile originating signaling; and mobile originating data.

15. The non-transitory digital storage medium of claim 13 wherein the RRC establishment cause is one of emergency; high priority access; mobile terminating access; mobile originating signaling; and mobile originating data.