Patent ID: 12016047

Abstract:
The technology described herein improves communication quality and device efficiency by selecting an access technology for use in a communication session between a user equipment (UE) and a communication network. The access technologies may be selected by a network node (e.g., eNodeB) based on a geographic location of the UE within a service area. In some geographic areas, the 5G leg may perform below a threshold quality measure, while the LTE leg performs well. In these situations, maintaining a communication session with only the LTE leg may yield a better overall performance (e.g., data throughput) than using the combination of a 5G leg and an LTE leg. The first step of the selection process is identifying geographic areas with below threshold 5G performance. Once the geographic subunits are designated as high or low performing, the designations are used to determine whether LTE and 5G should be used in combination.