Patent ID: 9307476
Filing Date: 2016-04-05
CPC Classification: H04W

Claim Text:
1. User Equipment (UE) configured for smart handover in a 3GPP LTE network, the UE comprising: comprising physical layer circuitry to communicate with enhanced Node Bs (eNBs) including macro eNBs and pico eNBs; and processing circuitry configured for initiating handovers including macro-cell to pico-cell handovers and macro-cell to macro-cell handovers, wherein for macro-cell to pico-cell handovers when the UE is attached to a serving macro eNB, the processing circuitry is configured to: determine a trajectory of the UE; and either permit or inhibit pico-cell attachment based on the trajectory of the UE and a direction toward a target pico eNB; wherein to determine whether pico-cell attachment is permitted or inhibited, the processing circuitry is further arranged to: calculate an angle between the trajectory of the UE and the direction toward the target pico eNB; permit pico-cell attachment when the calculated angle is less than or equal to an angle threshold; and inhibit pico-cell attachment when the calculated angle is greater than the angle threshold, when pico-cell attachment is permitted, initiate a macro-cell to pico-cell handover from the serving macro eNB to the target pico eNB based on signal level measurements of the serving macro eNB to the target pico eNB, and when pico-cell attachment is inhibited, refrain from initiating a macro-cell to pico-cell handover, and wherein for macro-cell to macro-cell handovers, the processing circuitry is configured to initiate a macro-cell to macro-cell handover from the serving macro eNB to a target macro eNB without use of the trajectory.