Sprint Spectrum L.p.

Andy Wurtenberger

Sreekar Marupaduga

Rajveen Narendran

John William Prock

Bryan Barbee

Patrick Jacob Schmidt

Jason Peter Sigg

Nitesh Manchanda

Vanil Parihar

Ryan Patrick Dreiling

Caleb Sisson Hyde

Eric Thompson

Justin R Anderson

Systems, methods, and processing nodes for performing carrier aggregation in a wireless network include associating a primary usage type of an application running on a wireless device with a characteristic of a first carrier based on at least a first frequency band utilized by the first carrier, associating a secondary usage type of the application with a characteristic of a second carrier based on at least a second frequency band utilized by the second carrier, assigning the first carrier as a primary carrier for the wireless device when operating in a carrier aggregation mode, and assigning the second carrier as a secondary carrier for the wireless device when operating in the carrier aggregation mode.

Selection of primary carrier based on usage type

Disclosed are methods and systems for selecting a carrier on which to serve a user equipment device (UE). In particular, a base station may determine that a speed of movement of the UE is threshold high. In response to determining that the speed of movement of the UE is threshold high, the base station may select a carrier based on a group delay variation (GDV) of the selected carrier. For example, the base station may respond to the determining by selecting a carrier having a threshold low GDV. In another example, the base station may respond to the determining by selecting the carrier having the lowest GDV among two or more candidate carriers being considered as part of the selection process. As such, once a carrier is selected, the base station may then serve the UE on the selected carrier.

Assigning a low-GDV carrier to a high-speed UE

A relay wireless device is configured to function as a relay on behalf of a donor access node. The relay wireless device determines a preferred donor access node from among a plurality of candidate donor access nodes based on a comparison with a number of thresholds for reliable and efficient provision of services to end-user wireless devices via the relay wireless device. Any access node that meets the threshold requirements is added to a list of candidate donor access nodes. The candidate donor access node that best meets the thresholds may be selected as the preferred donor access node, and a connection request submitted to the preferred donor access node.

Donor selection for relay access nodes

During a communication session, a filter in the RAN may filter signals sent over the communication pathway. When the filter filters signals sent over communication pathway, it may also cause some filter loss in the signals. The amount of the filter loss may vary as a function of frequency. Before the start of a communication session, the RAN may determine a filter loss for a given frequency. Because a higher filter loss indicates the RAN will transmit (or receive) a weaker signal, it may be undesirable to transmit signals to WCDs that are located a far distance from the RAN with frequencies having high filter losses. Thus, once the RAN has determined a filter loss for a given frequency, the RAN may reserve the given frequency for use in communication between the RAN and at least one WCD based on a distance between the WCD and the RAN.

Dynamic frequency assignment based on both the distance from eNodeB and the loss of a band-pass filter

Methods and systems are provided for enabling adaptive per-antenna rate control based on network conditions for a wireless communication device (WCD). The WCD and a radio access network (RAN) may form a communication link that has multiple data streams, each data stream received by a different antenna of the WCD. Each data stream may have a different encoding, and thus a different data rate. Additionally, each encoding may have an associated signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirement to decode. The more complicated an encoding, the higher the data rate the encoding supports. However, more complicated encodings also need a higher SINR to decode. By first decoding a data stream with a low-complexity encoding, the data can be subtracted from a data stream having a more complicated encoding. Therefore, the SINR of the data stream having a more complicated encoding may be increased, and increase the likelihood of it being decodable.

Adaptive per-antenna rate control based on network conditions

Methods and systems are provided for expediting call setup in a wireless communication system. A mobile station operating in idle mode and under coverage of a first and second wireless coverage area receives overhead channel data for the first coverage area. The mobile station then detects a trigger to initiate connectivity with the wireless communication system. Responsive to detecting this trigger, the mobile station determines an amount of time until it will receive overhead channel data for the second coverage area and makes a determination of whether this determined amount of time is greater than a threshold. If the determined amount of time is greater than a threshold, the mobile station seeks connectivity via the first coverage area. However, if the determined amount of time is less than a threshold, the mobile station seeks connectivity via the second coverage area.

Transitioning to previous coverage area to expedite call setup

A method of improving mobile communication hard handoffs comprises receiving signal quality information for a first pilot signal of a first frequency, the first pilot signal being from a first cellular site and receiving signal quality information for a second pilot signal of the first frequency, the second pilot signal being from a second cellular site. The method further includes generating an output display that includes first predicted locations for hard handoffs from the first cellular site to the second cellular site. The output display is generated based on a parameter of a first value that is representative of a ratio between the strength of the second pilot signal relative to the combined strength of, at least, the second pilot signal and the first pilot signal. The method still further comprises modifying the parameter from the first value to a second value and regenerating the output display to include second predicted hard handoff locations.

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Olathe, KS, United States of America

Andy Wurtenberger