The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 20, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 09, 1996
Gregory A Greene, Sr, Seffner, FL (US);
Robert L Littler, II, Norcross, GA (US);
Michael E Nail, Lutz, FL (US);
Kevin M Graham, Nashville, TN (US);
Alan B Jennison, Zephyrhills, FL (US);
GTE Mobile Communications Service Corporation, Atlanta, GA (US);
Abstract
A cellular communication system (10) includes any number of land stations (12), each of which controls a cell (14). When channels are assigned to cells (14), a figure of merit which predicts potential voice quality, such as C/I, is determined (34) for each channel/cell assignment. The assigned channels and associated figures of merit are distributed to corresponding land stations (14) to make channel-to-cell assignments. When a call arises in a cell (14) a channel is selected for assignment to the call. The channel is selected from channels assigned during the channel-to-cell assignment phase. A channel assignment algorithm (68) ensures that potentially lower quality channels (20) are the least used channels at the cell (14). When potentially lower quality channels (20) are assigned to calls, the calls are handed off to potentially higher quality channels (18) as soon as potentially higher quality channels (18) become available.