Patent ID: 11895549
Assignee: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 12:
13. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform:
receiving, at the apparatus in a wireless network and from a source cell in the wireless network, a list of one or more service/slice specific indications for individual ones of one or more network slices in a request for a first handover method for a user equipment from the source cell to the apparatus, the receiving performed in a handover preparation phase prior to handover of the user equipment;
selecting, by the apparatus and from the indications, one or more selected network slices to be handed over from the source cell to the apparatus using the first handover method; send, by the apparatus and to the source cell, indications of the one or more selected network slices in a handover request acknowledge message;
for those one or more selected network slices, performing handovers, using the first handover method, that maintain connection with the user equipment to both the source cell and target cell during at least part of the handovers that use the first handover method., to hand over for the user equipment these one or more selected network slices from the source cell to the apparatus; and
for one or more other network slices to be handed over for the user equipment from the source cell to the apparatus, performing handovers using a second handover method for the one or more other network slices, wherein the user equipment does not maintain two simultaneous connections to the source cell and target cell during the second handover method.