IP Library Granted Patent US 12,457,656
Granted Patent B2
US 12,457,656 · App. 18/453,396 · Granted Oct 28, 2025

Dual connectivity for reliability

Inventors: Geng Wu (Portland, OR); Qian Li (Beaverton, OR)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04W76/15H04L45/22H04L45/24H04L45/302H04W4/40H04W28/24H04W40/12H04W72/543H04W76/10H04W88/06
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,457,656
App. No.
18/453,396
Granted
Oct 28, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

Embodiments of a system and method for dual connectivity for device to vehicle or vehicle to vehicle communication in a Wireless Network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry may determine a quality of service (QoS) level for data to be transmitted over a first radio access technology (RAT) connection and determine a QoS indicator from the QoS level, the QoS indicator identifying a dual connectivity backup transmission, the dual connectivity backup transmission including a hot, warm, or cold backup. In some embodiments, transceiver circuitry may attempt to transmit the data using a first transmission mode, the first transmission mode using the first RAT connection and the data including the QoS indicator and retransmit, in response to the attempt failing, the data using a second transmission mode.

Claims (45)

1. A method, comprising:

establishing a first link between a first transmission point and a user equipment (UE);

establishing a second link between a second transmission point and the UE;

transmitting a first set of packets over the first link to the UE;

retransmitting, in response to determining that the first link has failed and based at least in part on having an active connection with the second transmission point via the second link, the first set of packets over the second link to the UE, wherein each of the first and second transmission points include radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC), and physical (PHY) layers; and

providing context of the first link to the second transmission point.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first link corresponds to a first radio access technology (RAT) and the second link corresponds to a second RAT.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first RAT operates on a 3GPP LTE network and the second RAT operates on a 5G network.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first RAT operates on a cellular network and the second RAT operates on a Bluetooth connection.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first RAT operates on a 3GPP LTE network or 5G network and the second RAT operates on a Wi-Fi connection.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first link corresponds to a first carrier and the second link corresponds to a second carrier.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first carrier is different from the second carrier.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first link and the second link correspond to a first carrier.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor configured to cause a network node to:

establish a first link between a first transmission point and a user equipment (UE);

establish a second link between a second transmission point and the UE;

transmit a first set of packets over the first link to the UE;

retransmit, in response to determining that the first link has failed and based at least in part on having an active connection with the second transmission point via the second link, the first set of packets over the second link to the UE, wherein each of the first and second transmission points include radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC), and physical (PHY) layers; and

provide context of the first link to the second transmission point.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first link operates at a frequency below 6 GHz and the second link operates at or above 6 GHz.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the UE is an Internet of Things (IoT) wearable device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the IoT wearable device is configured to communicate with a vehicle using vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication or vehicle to everything (V2X) communication.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first link is a primary link and the second link is a backup link.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the backup link operates in a background of the primary link according to a warm standby mode.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions executable by one or more processors of a network node to cause the network node to:

establish a first link between a first transmission point and a user equipment (UE);

establish a second link between a second transmission point and the UE;

transmit a first set of packets over the first link to the UE;

retransmit, in response to determining that the first link has failed and based at least in part on having an active connection with the second transmission point via the second link, the first set of packets over the second link to the UE, wherein each of the first and second transmission points include radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC), and physical (PHY) layers; and

provide context of the first link to the second transmission point.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the first set of packets comprise one or more messages including a Quality of Service (QOS) indicator corresponding to a warm standby mode.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the one or more messages including the QoS indicator further include at least one of:

user indicated medium priority messages;

system indicated medium priority messages; or

governmental medium priority messages.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the first set of packets comprise one or more messages relating to at least one of:

road traffic;

congestion;

routing or re-routing information;

rush hour traffic information;

weather; or

road conditions.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein transmitting the first set of packets over the first link is performed according to a first transmission mode and retransmitting the first set of packets over the second link is performed according to a second transmission mode.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the first link operates at a frequency below 6 gigahertz (GHz) and the second link operates at or above 6 GHz.

Continuity (4)
Continuation 17032178 · Sep 25, 2020
Continuation 15749717
Provisional Application 62212235 · Aug 31, 2015
Related Publication 20240057186A1 · Feb 15, 2024
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