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:
Jun. 03, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 25, 2001
Neil E. Bernstein, Short Hills, NJ (US);
Xiao C. Bernstein, New York, NY (US);
Wen-Yi Kuo, Parsippany, NJ (US);
Martin H. Meyers, Montclair, NJ (US);
Xiao Wang, Morristown, NJ (US);
Carl F. Weaver, Hanover, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
Inter-frequency handoffs in a CDMA or other wireless communication system are controlled using a noise-limited coverage trigger metric which is able to distinguish between same-frequency cell boundaries and other-frequency cell boundaries in the system. The trigger metric may be generated as a function of an average signal-to-noise measure for pilot signals received at a mobile station of the system and a linear sum of the signal-to-noise measures. The signal-to-noise measures may be generated in the mobile station and included in messages transmitted from the mobile station to one or more base stations of the system. The trigger metric is used to control a handoff from a current frequency to a new frequency in an ongoing call. The trigger metric may alternatively be based on a measure of mobile receive power alone. Other aspects of the invention reduce unnecessary searching for a new frequency and decrease the likelihood of “ping-ponging” from a current frequency to a new frequency by providing additional checks in the handoff process. For example, receive power and pilot signal-to-noise measures may be generated at a mobile station for both current and new frequencies. The mobile station then continues to operate at the current frequency as long as certain predetermined threshold conditions based on the measures are satisfied.