USER EQUIPMENT AND METHOD FOR RADIO ACCESS NETWORK ASSISTED WLAN INTERWORKING

摘要

A User Equipment is disclosed that is configured to perform traffic steering from a RAN (e.g., 3GPP system) to a WLAN, or vice versa, based on one or more rules. In an embodiment, the UE performs the traffic steering to the WLAN based on whether data is to be transmitted from or received by the UE. In another embodiment, the UE performs the traffic steering based on receipt of RAN assistance parameters without checking the status of the UE upload buffers or the eNB/AP download buffers. In yet another embodiment, the UE performs the traffic steering based on the latest RAN assistance information and a time elapsed since the last transmission or receipt of data.

主权项

1. User Equipment (UE) comprising hardware processing circuitry configured to:
determine if radio access network (RAN) assistance information has been received from an evolved NodeB (eNB) of a RAN, the RAN assistance information including UE network settings; determine if the RAN assistance information is valid; perform traffic steering between the RAN and a wireless local area network (WLAN) when the RAN assistance information has been received and is valid; refrain from traffic steering and obtain new RAN assistance information when the RAN assistance information was not received or is not valid; and perform traffic steering between the RAN and the WLAN using the new RAN assistance information when new RAN assistance information is received.