Qualcomm Incorporated

Jan C Ault

Paul T Williamson

John Richard Sorenson

Baaziz Achour

Jun Wang

James A Hutchison, Iv

Robbin D Hughes

Robert D Blakeney, Ii

Wen Jing New

Samir Salib Soliman

Ashok Bhatia

Alejandro Raul Holcman

Gwain Bayley

Eric John Lekven

Don Nielsen Andrus

Isaac Ta-yan Siu

Henti Tung

James A Hutchinson

Yugandhar Chiniga

Scott M Owen

James A Hutchison

Jennifer A Isaac

Ilan Peer

A system for facilitating the acquisition of a most desirable wireless service for a wireless phone. The system includes a scanning mechanism for periodically scanning for a signal indicative of a wireless service having a coverage area that overlaps one or more coverage areas of other wireless services. A service acquisition mechanism acquires the wireless service or one of the other wireless services based on predetermined selection criteria and the signal. More specifically, the present invention includes a wireless phone having a first mechanism for determining if a detected system, i.e., service is associated with a coverage area that overlaps one or more coverage areas of different systems. A second mechanism compares the different systems to the detected system and selects a preferred system based on the comparison. A third mechanism acquires the preferred system. In the specific embodiment, the wireless phone includes a computer that runs software for implementing the first, second, and third mechanisms.

Techniques for facilitating optimal service acquisition

A method and apparatus for acquiring an emergency service from one or more candidate mobile radio communication systems. An attempt is made by the mobile radio unit to acquire normal non-emergency service. If the attempt of acquiring normal non-emergency services fails and the user needs to originate an emergency call, an emergency scan list containing one or more candidate mobile radio communication systems is scanned, and an attempt is made to acquire emergency service from one of these systems. The emergency scan list is different from the normal preferred roaming list stored in the mobile radio unit. Next, the invention originates an emergency call in accordance with the service acquired from the emergency scan list.

Method and apparatus for acquiring emergency service in a mobile radio communication system

A method and computer program product for acquiring service in a border area that is serviced by two communications systems that share the same frequencies. The method of the present invention includes the steps of scanning a predetermined range of control channels in order to determine the first and second strongest control channels. A determination is then made as to whether a first system identification code (SID) associated with a signal received over the strongest control channel is acceptable. This can be accomplished, for example, by comparing the first SID to a list of acceptable SIDs. Conventionally, if the SID associated with a signal received over the strongest control channel is not acceptable, the system acquisition process will be aborted. However, in the present invention, the probability of acquiring service is increased because a determination is made whether a SID associated with the signal received over the second strongest control channel is acceptable, if the first SID was found not to be acceptable. Similarly, the second strongest paging channel can be used to increase the probability of acquiring service.

Method and apparatus for acquiring service in a &ldquo;border area&rdquo;

A method and apparatus for selecting a communication system in accordance with the geographic region in which the subscriber station is located is described. Upon successful acquisition, a system determination processor examines the received system identification information and compares it with system identification information stored in a universal system table to determine the geographical region of the identified communication system. The system determination processor then determines whether the acquired system is the most desirable system for use in the geographical region. If it is the most desirable system for use in the geographical region, the system determination processor selects the acquired system for providing service. If it is not the most desirable system for use in the geographical region, the subscriber station attempts to acquire a more desirable system using information from the universal system table.

Method and apparatus for performing preferred system selection

A wireless communication device automatically and seamlessly switches to an alternate, available system when it is unable to complete a call origination attempt, without requiring the user to take any affirmative actions to select the alternate system. The wireless communication device stores a list of preferred communication systems. The mobile station attempts to acquire one of these preferred communication systems upon failure of the reverse link. If that is not successful, the mobile station attempts to acquire a communication system most likely to provide service. If that is also not successful, the mobile station re-attempts acquisition of the current communication system. The mobile station also re-attempts acquisition with one of the preferred communication systems after a predetermined idle time.

Method of acquiring an alternate communication system upon failure of reverse link communications

A subscriber unit that supports more than one voice service option and selects the appropriate voice service option when originating and receiving a call. The subscriber unit includes a memory to store parameter values, including a first voice service option parameter value and a second voice service option parameter value. The subscriber unit also includes a means for determining whether the subscriber unit is within a home system or is roaming, and a selecting means for selecting from among at least a first voice service option corresponding to the first voice service option parameter value and a second voice service option corresponding to the second voice service option parameter value. The selecting means selects the first voice service option if the subscriber unit is within the home system, and selects the second voice service option if the subscriber is roaming.

System and method for selecting a voice service option

A method and apparatus for selecting a communication system in accordance with the geographic region in which the subscriber station is located. Upon successful acquisition, the subscriber station examines the received system identification information to determine its geographical region. The subscriber station then determines whether the acquired system is the most desirable system for use in the geographical region. If it is the most desirable system for use in the geographical region, the subscriber station provides service using the acquired system. If it is not the most desirable system for use in the geographical region, the subscriber station attempts to acquire a more desirable system.

A wireless communication device which automatically and seamlessly switches to an alternate, available system when it is unable to complete a call origination attempt, without requiring the user to take any affirmative actions to select the alternate system or re-initiate a call origination. The wireless communication device decreases the percentage of call failures by providing a hold-over of pending call origination attempts until service is finally acquired. In the case of either exceeding the maximum number of access sequences (reverse link limited) or failure to acquire the forward link of the preferred communication system (forward link limited), the user is not required to re-initiate the call origination, thus turning a potential call failure into a success.

Automatic system switching in a multiple-mode wireless communication

The wireless communication device receives a neighbor list message from a first base station. The neighbor list message includes a respective base station configuration parameter for each of a plurality of base stations. In response to the neighbor list message, the wireless communication device constructs a neighbor list table, including one record for each of the plurality of base stations, with each record including their respective base station configuration parameter. After handing off to a second base station, the wireless communication device replaces the record for the second base station with a corresponding record for the first base station. The wireless communication device then may change the respective base station configuration parameter for at least one of the records of the plurality of base stations in the neighbor list table to match the base station configuration parameter of the second base station.

Method and apparatus for constructing a temporary list of neighboring

A system and method for processing wideband data within digital FM transceiver. A digital FM demodulator within the transceiver produces a demodulated information signal in response to the FM signal. The digital FM receiver also includes a wideband message processing section for recovering message information from the demodulated information signal. A word register circuit within the wideband message processing section stores one or more repetitions of a message word recovered from the demodulated information signal. During operation of the FM receiver in a control channel mode, a dotting detector within the wideband processing section is used for detecting a first dotting sequence within the demodulated information signal. Similarly, the dotting detector serves to detect a second dotting sequence within the demodulated information signal during operation in a voice channel mode. A word sync sequence is also identified within the demodulated information signal prior to storage of the one or more repetitions of the received message word within the word register circuit. A reconstructed message word is then generated by comparing corresponding bits within the one or more repetitions of the one message word. A message prefilter determines whether a processor interrupt should be generated by ascertaining whether the reconstructed message word is of a predefined type. A digital FM transmitter of the transceiver is controlled on the basis of busy-idle channel status information recovered from the demodulated information signal.

Method and apparatus for processing wideband data in a digital cellular

A system and method for acquiring a code division multiple access (CDMA) pilot signal having a pilot pseudonoise (PN) code offset in a CDMA communication system. A received signal is correlated with a first set of PN code offset hypotheses. If this first 'full' search is unsuccessful in acquiring the CDMA pilot signal, the method includes waiting for a first period, and then correlating the received signal with a second set of PN code offset hypotheses which are a subset of said first set of PN code offset hypotheses and therefore requires less search time. If this 'mini' search is unsuccessful in acquiring the CDMA pilot signal the method includes waiting for a second period and then quickly measuring the energy of the received signal. If the received energy exceeds a threshold, then a 'mini' search is immediately performed. These alternating search techniques of full, mini, micro are repeated.

Power-efficient acquisition of a CDMA pilot signal

A method and apparatus for selecting a communication system in a multi-mode subscriber station. In the exemplary embodiment, the subscriber station capable of operating in both CDMA and analog modes comprises a analog modulation and demodulation and processing element and a CDMA modulation and demodulation and processing element and a system determination element. System determination element examines exit parameters provided by the communication element exited and determines the next system upon which to attempt acquisition in accordance with a system preferences table, a CDMA channel table and a non-volatile memory element.

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Santee, CA, United States of America

Jan C Ault