Network access selection between access networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9414301-B2
Application number	US-201314042493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2013
Priority date	Apr 26, 2013
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

WI-FI/3GPP access selection techniques are used to control selection by a user terminal between cellular network cells and WI-FI cells. Cellular network cells providing overlapping coverage with WI-FI cells are correlated with the WI-FI cells. A received signal strength threshold is determined for each WI-FI cell based on an average throughput of the cellular network cells correlated with the WI-FI cell. The WI-FI user terminal admit threshold is used to control the effective coverage of the WI-FI cell. A user terminal operating within a cellular network cell is admitted to a WI-FI only if it is within the effective coverage area of the WI-FI cell as determined by the received signal strength threshold. Increasing the threshold shrinks the effective coverage area of the WI-FI cell to allow user terminal only of strong RSSI to make connection to the Cell, and steers user terminal of weak RSSI away from the WI-FI cell. In contrary, decreasing the threshold expands the effective coverage area of the WI-FI cell and effectively allows more user terminal making connection to the WI-FI cell.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling selection by a user terminal between a first access network and a second access network providing overlapping coverage with the first access network, the method comprising:
obtaining a performance measurement comprising a throughput for a group of one or more cells in the second access network that are correlated with a cell in the first access network;
computing an admission threshold for the cell in the first access network based on the throughput; and
controlling the admission of a user terminal operating in the second access network to the cell in the first access network based on the admission threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the admission threshold comprises a minimum received signal strength for the user terminal allowed by the cell in the first access network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein computing the admission threshold based on a throughput comprises computing the admission threshold based on an average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein computing the admission threshold based on an average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network comprises computing the admission threshold as a function of the average throughput of the cell in the first access network and the average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein computing the admission threshold as a function of the average throughput of the cell in the first access network and the average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network comprises applying an adjustable bias factor to favor one of the first and second access networks.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein computing an average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network comprises computing a weighted average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein computing a weighted average throughput for the group of cells in the second access network comprises:
computing a weighting factor for each cell in the group of cells;
computing a weighted sum of the individual cell throughputs based on the weighing factors; and
dividing the weighted sum by the number of cells in the group of cells.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein computing a weighting factor for each cell in the group comprises computing the weighting factors based on hit counts.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the group of cells in the second network comprise cells of two or more different types, and wherein computing the weighting factors based on hit counts comprises multiplying the hit counts for cells of different types by corresponding bias factors based on cell type.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein computing an admission threshold is further based on the cell loads or other network conditions in the first and second access networks.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein computing the admission threshold for the cell in the first access network comprises computing the admission threshold by a centralized access control node in the first access network.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein controlling the admission of a user terminal operating in a cell of the second access network to the cell in the first access network based on the admission threshold comprises sending the admission threshold from the access control node to an access point for the cell in the first access network.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein obtaining a performance measurement for a group of one or more cells in the second access network that are correlated with the cell in the first network comprises:
sending a request from the access control node in the first access network to a network node in the second access network;
receiving, responsive to the request, performance statistics for the group of cells in the second access network correlated with the cell in the first access network;
computing the performance measurement based on the performance statistics.

14. The method of claim 11 further comprising correlating the group of one or more cells of the second access network with the cell in the first access network.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein correlating the group of one or more cells of the second access network with the cell in the first access network comprises:
sending a cell identification request from the first access network to the second access network, the cell identification request including a user terminal identification of a user terminal connected to the cell in the first access network;
receiving, responsive to the cell identification request, a cell identification of a last known cell in the second access network in which the user terminal was present; and
correlating the received cell identification with the cell in the first access network.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein computing the admission threshold for the cell in the first access network comprises computing the admission threshold by an access point for the cell in the first access network.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein controlling the admission of a user terminal operating in a cell of the second access network to the cell in the first access network based on the admission threshold comprises:
measuring a received signal strength of a signal received from a user terminal attempting to access the cell in the first access network; and
admitting the user terminal to the cell in the first access network based on a comparison of the received signal strength to the admission threshold.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising silently rejecting the attempt by a user terminal to connect to the first cell by ignoring data transmissions from the user terminal to the access point.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein obtaining a performance measurement for a group of one or more cells in the second access network that are correlated with the cell in the first network comprises:
receiving performance statistics for the group of cells in the second access network correlated with the cell in the first access network; and
computing the performance measurement based on the performance statistics.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising readjusting the admission threshold at predetermined intervals or as conditions in the two access networks change.

21. A network node in a first access network configured to control selection by a user terminal between the first access network and a second access network providing overlapping coverage with the first access network, the network node comprising:
a network interface for communicating with other network nodes; and
a processing circuit configured to:
obtain a performance measurement comprising a throughput for a group of one or more cells in the second access network that are correlated with a cell in the first access network;
compute an admission threshold for a cell in the first access network based on the throughput; and
control the admission of a user terminal operating in the second access network to the cell in the first access network based on the admission threshold.

22. The network node of claim 21 wherein the admission threshold comprises a minimum received signal strength (RSSI) for the user terminal allowed by the cell in the first access network.

23. The network node of claim 21 wherein, to compute an admission threshold for the cell in the fi

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M
• ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

Inventors

• Huang Kaiyuan
• Tam Gary
• Rayment Stephen

Classifications

• H04W12/06 Primary

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04W48/20

  Selecting an access point · CPC title

• H04W48/02

  Access restriction performed under specific conditions · CPC title

• H04W48/18

  Selecting a network or a communication service · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title