Patent ID: 11950098
Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
enabling, by a user equipment comprising a processor, a voice-over-WI-FI (“VoWIFI”) service;
receiving, by the user equipment, hidden service set identifier (“SSID”) information;
registering, by the user equipment, with a core network via a radio access network;
monitoring, by the user equipment, a first signal strength of a first signal from the radio access network;
scanning, by the user equipment, for a second signal from a wireless local area network (“WLAN”), and when the second signal is found, measuring a second signal strength of the second signal;
determining, by the user equipment, whether the first signal strength is at or below a first threshold;
in response to determining that the first signal strength is at or below the first threshold, determining, by the user equipment, if a WLAN is available and is an untrusted WLAN;
in response to determining that the WLAN is potentially an untrusted WLAN, probing, by the user equipment, the untrusted WLAN with the hidden SSID information;
determining, by the user equipment, whether an untrusted WLAN access point associated with the untrusted WLAN responds to the hidden SSID information;
in response to determining that the untrusted WLAN access point responds to the hidden SSID information, generating an access request and sending the access request to the untrusted WLAN access point using the hidden SSID information;
receiving, by the user equipment, via the untrusted WLAN access point, an authentication challenge from an evolved packet data gateway operating in the core network;
responding, by the user equipment, to the authentication challenge with an authentication response directed to the evolved packet data gateway; and
in response to the user equipment being authenticated to access the untrusted WLAN for registration with the core network, registering, by the user equipment, with the core network via the untrusted WLAN and the evolved packet data gateway.