Patent ID: 8867373

Claim:
A method performed by a communication device for declaring a radio link failure (RLF), comprising: establishing a connection between the communication device and a serving base station; determining whether to relax a condition for declaring an RLF; using a first rule in declaring an RLF in response to determining that the communication device should not relax the condition, wherein link failure is declared under the first rule if a first set of conditions is met, wherein a first condition in the first set of conditions is that a number of consecutive out-of-sync indications must exceed a first threshold value, and a second condition in the first set of conditions is an expiration of a timer initiated after the first condition in the first set is met; and using a relaxed rule in declaring an RLF in response to determining that the communication device should relax the condition, wherein, link failure is declared under the relaxed rule if a second set of conditions is met, wherein a first condition in the second set of conditions is that a number of consecutive out-of-sync indications exceeds a second threshold value, and second condition in the second set of conditions is an expiration of a timer initiated after the first condition in the second set is met, wherein, the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value, and wherein the first threshold is equal to or greater than 1, and the second threshold is equal to or greater than 3.