METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ENABLING LOAD STEERING IN HETEROGENEOUS RADIO ACCESS NETWORKS

摘要

According to a first aspect there is provided a method of enabling load steering between a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Network (RAN) and a Wi Fi RAN. The method comprises at a server generating overlap information associating one or more cells of the 3GPP RAN with one or more Access Points (AP) of the Wi Fi RAN wherein a cell of the 3GPP RAN is associated with an AP of the Wi Fi RAN if it is determined that the cell overlaps with an area covered by the AP. The server then determines an off load schedule for a cell of the 3GPP RAN the off load schedule indicating when an overlapping AP of the Wi Fi RAN can reject an attempt by a user terminal to attach to the AP of the Wi Fi RAN and sends the off load schedule to the Wi Fi RAN.