Patent ID: 9585149
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: H04L,H04W

Claim:
1. A method of managing communication between a base station and a user equipment device (UE) in a wireless communication system wherein radio frequency (RF) carriers are each either time division duplex (TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD), the method comprising: serving, by the base station, the UE on just a first RF carrier; while serving the UE on just the first RF carrier, making a first decision by the base station to begin providing the UE with carrier aggregation service on a plurality of RF carriers including the first RF carrier and a second RF carrier; and in response to the first decision, the base station (a) making a second decision, based at least in part on a measure of RF performance of communication between the base station and the UE on the first RF carrier, of whether to select as the second RF carrier a TDD carrier or rather an FDD carrier, (b) selecting an RF carrier to be the second RF carrier in accordance with the second decision, and (c) beginning to serve the UE with carrier aggregation service on the first RF carrier and the selected second RF carrier, wherein the first RF carrier is a TDD carrier, and wherein making the second decision comprises (i) determining the measure of RF performance of communication between the base station and the UE on the first RF carrier, (ii) making a determination of whether the determined measure of RF performance of communication between the base station and the UE on the first RF carrier is below a defined threshold, (iii) and making the second decision based at least in part on the determination, wherein, if the determination is that the measure of RF performance of communication between the base station and the UE on the first RF carrier is not below the threshold, then, based at least in part on the determination, the second decision is that the second RF carrier should be a TDD carrier, and wherein, if the determination is that the measure of RF performance of communication between the base station and the UE on the first RF carrier is below the threshold, then the method further comprises, responsive to the determination, making a further determination of whether projected path loss on a candidate FDD carrier is threshold lower than path loss on the first RF carrier, wherein, (i) if the further determination is affirmative, then the second decision is that the second RF carrier should be the candidate FDD carrier, but (ii) if the further determination is not affirmative, then the second decision is that the second RF carrier should be a TDD carrier.