Quality of Experience-Based Handover Management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016135104-A1
Application number	US-201514695733-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 24, 2015
Priority date	Nov 12, 2014
Publication date	May 12, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A telecommunication carrier may use quality of experience metrics to manage user device handovers. A handover controller may receiving a quality metric value obtained by a user device for a current base station of a carrier network. The quality metric value may measure quality of experience characteristics of an application that is in communication with the current base station. The handover controller may compare the quality metric value to a corresponding quality metric value for an adjacent base station of the carrier network. The corresponding quality metric value may measure the quality of experience characteristics of an additional application that communicated with the adjacent base station. When the corresponding quality metric value is greater than the quality metric value, the handover controller may command the user device to perform a handover that switches the user device from communicating with the current base station to communicating with the adjacent base station.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and memory having instructions stored therein, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
receiving a quality metric value obtained by a user device for a current base station of a carrier network, the quality metric value measuring one or more quality of experience characteristics of at least one application that is in communication with the current base station;
comparing the quality metric value to a corresponding quality metric value for an adjacent base station of the carrier network, the corresponding quality metric value measuring the one or more quality of experience characteristics of at least one additional application that communicated with the adjacent base station; and
commanding the user device to perform a handover that switches the user device from communicating with the current base station to communicating with the adjacent base station in response to the corresponding quality metric value being greater than the quality metric value.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising holding the user device at the current base station in response to the corresponding quality metric value being less than or equal to the quality metric value.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the quality metric value is derived from the one or more quality of experience characteristics via a conversion algorithm, further comprising:
analyzing a network effect of the handover performed based on the quality metric value on the carrier network; and adjusting the conversion algorithm based on the network effect to produce a different quality metric value from the one or more quality of experience characteristics.

4 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising modifying the quality metric value for the current base station or the corresponding quality metric value for the adjacent base station based on at least one of a difference in application codec, a difference in operating system platform, a difference in geographical signal influence, or a difference in network signal property associated with an application that is communicating with the current base station and an additional application that communicated with the adjacent base station.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the comparing includes comparing the quality metric value to a corresponding quality metric value in response to determining a signal robustness of a signal provided by the base station is above a predetermined threshold.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the quality metric value measures a quality of experience characteristic of an application on the user device, multiple quality of experience characteristics of an application on the user device, or multiple quality of experience characteristics of multiple applications on the user device.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one application includes a video streaming application, and the quality of experience characteristics include a video mean opinion score for a time period, a number of video stalls in the time period, a number of adaptive bit rate changes in the time period, or a number of audio/video synchronization failure events in the time period.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one application includes an audio streaming application, and the quality of experience characteristics include an audio mean opinion score for a time period or a number of audio loss events in the time period.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one application include a gaming application, and the quality of experience characteristics include a response latency of a network to the game application.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein quality metric value for the current base station and the corresponding quality metric value for the adjacent base station measures the one or more quality of experience characteristics of streaming applications that have an identical codec or a common operating system platform.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding quality metric value is an average value of a plurality of quality metric values that measure quality of experience characteristics of multiple comparable applications on multiple user devices that communicated with the adjacent base station.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the corresponding quality metric value is obtained for an additional user device that has an identical distance to the adjacent base station as a distance of the user device to the current base station, or obtained for the additional user device that has an identical position relative to the adjacent base station as a position of the user device to the current base station.

13 . One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that upon execution cause one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
determining a quality metric value for a user device at a current base station of a carrier network, the quality metric value measuring one or more quality of experience characteristics of at least one application that is in communication with the current base station; ascertaining a corresponding quality metric value for an adjacent base station of the carrier network, the corresponding quality metric value measuring the one or more quality of experience characteristics of at least one additional application that communicated with the adjacent base station; measuring a current signal robustness value of the current base station and an adjacent signal robustness value of the adjacent base station; combining the adjacent signal robustness value with a signal robustness offset value to obtain a modified adjacent signal robustness value, the signal robustness offset value being derived from a difference between the quality metric value and the corresponding quality metric value; sending the current signal robustness value and the modified adjacent signal robustness value to a computing device; and switching the user device from communicating with the current base station to the adjacent base station in response to a handover command from the computing device, the handover command being provided by the computing device in response to the modified adjacent signal robustness value being greater than the current signal robustness value.

14 . The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13 , further comprising maintain a communication connection between the user device and the current base station in response to the computing device determining that the modified adjacent signal robustness value is equal to or less than the current signal robustness value.

15 . The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13 , further comprising adjusting the modified adjacent signal robustness value based on at least one of a codec difference between an application that is communicating with the current base station and an application that communicated with the adjacent base station, a geographical location of the user device relative to the current base station, or a signal attenuation difference between a signal provided by the current base station and an additional signal provided by the adjacent base station.

16 . The one or more computer-readable media of claim 13 , wherein the sending includes sending the current signal robustness value and the modified adjacent signal robustness value in response to determining that a signal robustness of a signal provided by the base station is above a predetermined threshold.

Assignees

• T Mobile Usa Inc

Inventors

• Lau Kevin
• Liu Jun

Classifications

• H04W36/30 Primary

  by measured or perceived connection quality data · CPC title

• H04W36/14

  Reselecting a network or an air interface · CPC title

• H04W88/08

  Access point devices · CPC title

• H04W36/0088

  Scheduling hand-off measurements · CPC title

• H04W36/304

  due to measured or perceived resources with higher communication quality · CPC title