Seamless handoff, offload, and load balancing in integrated Wi-Fi/small cell systems

摘要

A method of handing off between a cellular network and a Wi-Fi network is disclosed. A cellular base station of the cellular network is caused to collect information related to the cellular network. A Wi-Fi access point of the Wi-Fi network is caused to collect information related to the Wi-Fi network, wherein the cellular base station and the Wi-Fi access point are co-located. The information related to the cellular network and the information related to the Wi-Fi network are used collectively for determining whether to handoff traffic of a user equipment from a cellular air interface of the cellular network to a Wi-Fi air interface of the Wi-Fi network, or vice versa.

主权项

1. A method of handing off between a cellular network and a Wi-Fi network, comprising:
causing a cellular base station of the cellular network to collect information related to the cellular network; causing a Wi-Fi access point of the Wi-Fi network to collect information related to the Wi-Fi network, wherein the cellular base station and the Wi-Fi access point are integrated and co-located at a single physical location or virtually co-located, wherein co-located comprises connected by control and data channels in such a way that control information and data packets of the cellular base station and the Wi-Fi access point may be passed directly to each other; using the information related to the cellular network and the information related to the Wi-Fi network collectively for determining whether to handoff traffic of a user equipment from a cellular air interface of the cellular network to a Wi-Fi air interface of the Wi-Fi network, or vice versa; sending data packets from the Wi-Fi access point to the cellular base station, wherein the data packets correspond to traffic of the user equipment that has been handed off from the cellular air interface of the cellular network to the Wi-Fi air interface of the Wi-Fi network, wherein the data packets are further sent by the cellular base station through tunnels established on the cellular network prior to the handoff; and intercepting a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) request sent by the user equipment and responding to the request by sending a cellular network assigned IP address to be used by the user equipment as its IP address on the Wi-Fi network, wherein the cellular network assigned IP address was previously assigned to the user equipment as its IP address on the cellular network.