Qualcomm Incorporated

Robert C Ottinger

Kuo-Chun Lee

Paul E Bender

Bibhu P Mohanty

Todd Robert Sutton

Gadi Karmi

Noam A Ziv

Roy F Quick

Venkat Tangirala

Toni Lee Holcman

Steven P Stachwick

Suzanne M Lueder

A method and apparatus for operating a cellular telephone system that supports performing an inter-system soft handoff is described. A subscriber unit generates a pilot strength measurement report when the pilot channel from a base station is detected. When a base station controller receiving the pilot strength measurement report determines that the base station is part of a second cellular telephone system, a inter-system soft handoff request is generated. An admission control subsystem receives the inter-system soft handoff and either grants or denies the request base on the traffic level with the second cellular telephone system. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the traffic level is determined based on link load messages received periodically by the admission control subsystem that are generated by an interface port coupled to an interconnect between the first cellular telephone system and the second cellular telephone system. The link load message include peak queue length and average frame rate information.

Inter-system soft handoff

Growing community of inventors

Encinitas, CA, United States of America

Robert C Ottinger