Patent ID: 9432909
Filing Date: 2016-08-30
CPC Classification: H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method for sharing radio resources in a cell amongst multiple operators, wherein the method is implemented by a control node and comprises: determining that a mobile terminal connection is a candidate to be handed over to the cell; obtaining International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) information for the mobile terminal connection; based on the IMSI information, identifying a home operator for the mobile terminal connection as being an operator of a core network to which the connection is connected; determining whether and/or which of the shared radio resources in the cell are to be allocated to the mobile terminal connection for handover to the cell, based on the home operator identified for that connection and one or more rules that give different ones of the multiple operators different priorities to the shared radio resources in the cell; and allocating one or more of the shared radio resources in accordance with said determining whether and/or which of the shared radio resources in the cell are to be allocated, wherein, when the home operator identified for the mobile terminal connection has a lower priority to the shared radio resources than a competing operator that shares those radio resources, said allocating comprises allocating one or more of the shared radio resources in the cell to the mobile terminal connection provided that those radio resources are not needed for a mobile terminal connection having the competing operator as its home operator.