Method and apparatus for managing wireless connection switching
A method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided to manage wireless connection switching. In the context of a method, an Access Point (AP) may determine whether to direct at least one User Equipment (UE) connected to a local area AP to be connected to a macro AP and may cause, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least one UE to be connected to the macro AP, at least one signal to be transmitted to the at least one UE, the at least one signal being configured to direct the at least one UE to connect to the macro AP. The signal may take many different forms and may encode further information such as the portion of the traffic that should be served by the macro AP, a particular Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) resource to be used by the UE, and/or other types of information and/or parameters.
1. A method, implemented by an apparatus, comprising:
determining, by processing circuitry of the apparatus, whether to direct at least some traffic of at least one user equipment (UE) that is currently connected to a first type of access point (AP) to be connected to a second type of AP that is different than the first type of AP; and
causing, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to be connected to the second type of AP, a paging message to be transmitted to the at least one UE, the paging message being configured to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to connect to the second type of AP which is a WiFi AP,
wherein the first type of AP operates using a cellular network and using a different communication protocol and different communication frequency than the second type of AP which uses a WiFi network, and
wherein bidirectional communication occurs between the at least one UE and the first type of AP while concurrent bidirectional communication occurs between the at least one UE and the second type of AP,
wherein the method further comprises causing, by the processing circuitry, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to be connected to the second type of AP, a Downlink Control Information DCI message to be transmitted to the at least one UE,
wherein the DCI message comprises a reserved bit indicating that the UE is to connect to the macro AP, and
wherein the reserved bit is included in a plurality of bits representing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the paging message configured to direct only a portion of the traffic of the at least one UE to connect to the second type of AP.
3. An apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry configured to
determine whether to direct at least some traffic of at least one user equipment (UE) that is currently connected to a first type of access point (AP) to be connected to a second type of AP that is different than the first type of AP; and
cause, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to be connected to the second type of AP, a paging message to be transmitted to the at least one UE, the paging message being configured to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to connect to the second type of AP which is a WiFi AP,
wherein the first type of AP operates using a cellular network and using a different communication protocol and different communication frequency than the second type of AP which uses a WiFi network, and
wherein bidirectional communication occurs between the at least one UE and the first type of AP while concurrent bidirectional communication occurs between the at least one UE and the second type of AP,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to be connected to the second type of AP, a Downlink Control Information DCI message to be transmitted to the at least one UE,
wherein the DCI message comprises a reserved bit indicating that the UE is to connect to the macro AP, and
wherein the reserved bit is included in a plurality of bits representing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number.
4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the paging message comprises a switch-back paging indicator.
5. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the paging message comprises an indication of one or more dedicated Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) parameters.
6. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the paging message comprises an indication of what traffic is to be served by the second type of AP which is a local AP connected to the UE.
7. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the paging message comprises an indication of a link problem regarding a local area AP.
8. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein a set of PRAM resources are predefined for the at least one UE, a particular PRACH resource being determined by the UE based on a subframe index in which the UE detects the paging message.
9. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the DCI message comprises a DCI format 1A/1C message.
10. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the DCI message is scrambled with a Paging Radio Network Temporary Identity (P-RNTI).
11. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the paging message is transmitted during a switch-back Paging Occasion (PO).
12. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the apparatus being further directed to cause transmission of, in an instance in which at least one first signal is transmitted to the UE during a RACH procedure, at least one second signal comprising an indication of a RACH purpose.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one second signal comprises a msg 2.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one second signal comprises a Random Access Response (RAR) message and further wherein the indication of the RACH purpose comprises a reserved hit in a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) of the RAR message.
15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the at least one second signal comprises a msg 4.
16. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code portions embodied therein, the program code portions being configured to, upon execution, cause an apparatus to at least:
determine whether to direct at least some traffic of at least one user equipment (UE) that is currently connected to a first type of access point (AP) to be connected to a second type of AP that is different than the first type of AP, the first type of AP being one of a local AP and a macro AP and the second type of AP being the other one of the local AP and the macro AP that is different than the first type of AP; and
cause, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to be connected to the second type of AP, a paging message to be transmitted to the at least one UE, the paging message being configured to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to connect to the second type of AP which is a WiFi AP,
wherein the first type of AP operates using a cellular network and using a different communication protocol and different communication frequency than the second type of AP which uses a WiFi network,
wherein bidirectional communication occurs between the at least one UE and the first type of AP while concurrent bidirectional communication occurs between the at least one UE and the second type of AP,
wherein the program code portions are further configured to, upon execution, cause the apparatus to, in an instance in which it is determined to direct the at least some traffic of the at least one UE to be connected to the second type of AP, a Downlink Control Information DCI message to be transmitted to the at least one UE,
wherein the DCI message comprises a reserved bit indicating that the UE is to connect to the macro AP, and
wherein the reserved bit is included in a plurality of bits representing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process number.