Method and apparatus for improved mobile communications in heterogeneous wireless networks

1. A method of wireless communication comprising:

communicating, by an anchor-cell transceiver node with a mobile device, via a primary link;

instructing, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, a secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device to establish a secondary link for a period of time until expiration;

conveying, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, information for the mobile device to the mobile device, wherein conveying the information to the mobile device comprises,

partitioning the information according to data type to produce a primary-link portion and a secondary-link portion of the information, and distributing the primary-link portion of the information to the primary link and the secondary-link portion of the information to the secondary link of the secondary-cell transceiver node, wherein both the primary link and the secondary link are concurrently active wireless links with the mobile device;

transmitting, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, the primary-link portion of the information to the mobile device via the primary link;

routing, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, the secondary-link portion of the information to the mobile device via the secondary link of the secondary-cell transceiver node; and

sending, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, a refresh indication for the secondary link to the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device to prevent said expiration of said period of time,

wherein the anchor-cell transceiver node and the secondary-cell transceiver node are both wireless transceiver nodes.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

sending, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, a handoff indication triggering the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device to perform a handoff of the mobile device to a new secondary-cell transceiver node.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

performing, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, Radio Link Control (RLC) processing for the primary link and the secondary link between the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the secondary-cell transceiver node communicates with the anchor-cell transceiver node to support the Radio Link Control (RLC) processing at the anchor-cell transceiver node for the secondary link between the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

performing, by the anchor-cell transceiver node, Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) processing for the primary link and the secondary link between the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , wherein the secondary-cell transceiver node communicates with the anchor-cell transceiver node to support the Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) processing at the anchor-cell transceiver node for the secondary link between the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the secondary-cell transceiver node performs all physical layer processing for the secondary link between the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device.

8. A method of wireless communication comprising:

communicating, by a mobile device with an anchor-cell transceiver node, via a primary link;

receiving, by the mobile device from the anchor-cell transceiver node, an indication for the mobile device and a secondary-cell transceiver node to establish a secondary link for a period of time until expiration;

communicating, by the mobile device with the secondary-cell transceiver node, via the secondary link, wherein both the primary link and the secondary link are concurrently active wireless links;

monitoring, by the mobile device, the primary link and the secondary link for information sent by the anchor-cell transceiver node and the secondary-cell transceiver node, respectively;

simultaneously receiving, by the mobile device, a primary-link portion of the information via the primary link and a secondary-link portion of the information via the secondary link, the primary-link portion of the information being different than the secondary-link portion of the information; and

receiving, by the mobile device from the anchor-cell transceiver node, a refresh indication for the secondary link to prevent said expiration of said period of time,

wherein the anchor-cell transceiver node and the secondary-cell transceiver node are both wireless transceiver nodes.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising:

monitoring a candidate set of secondary-cell transceiver nodes for possible communications from any of the secondary-cell transceiver nodes in the candidate set.

10. The method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device from the anchor-cell transceiver node, an indication for the secondary-cell transceiver node and the mobile device to perform a handoff of the mobile device to a new secondary-cell transceiver node.

11. The method as recited in claim 8 , further comprising:

monitoring, by the mobile device, both the primary link and the secondary link until occurrence of,

the secondary link expiring without being refreshed, or

a handoff of the mobile device to a new secondary link of a new secondary-cell transceiver node being performed.