Consecutive Conditional Handovers for High-Mobility Wireless Reliability

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current wireless communication systems face challenges in ensuring accurate signal transmission and reception, particularly in high-speed and high-mobility scenarios, where handover operations are prone to failures due to rapidly changing channel conditions, leading to data losses and stalls.

Innovation Solution

The implementation of consecutive conditional handovers, where a cellular base station configures a wireless device with information for potential handovers to multiple cells, allowing the device to perform handovers based on pre-defined conditions without relying on real-time signaling, thereby reducing handover failures and improving reliability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Speed

If real-time signaling is used for handover operations, then handover responsiveness is improved, but handover reliability deteriorates in high-speed scenarios due to rapidly changing channel conditions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehandover responsivenessVSAvoidhandover reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-configuring handover information including multiple candidate target cells and their corresponding handover conditions before handover is needed. The wireless device stores this information and autonomously executes handover when conditions are met, eliminating the need for real-time signaling during actual handover execution in high-speed scenarios.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If conditional handover information is provided for multiple cells, then handover reliability is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehandover reliabilityVSAvoiddevice complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments handover information into multiple independent candidate cell configurations, each with its own handover condition. The wireless device evaluates each segment independently and executes handover to the appropriate target cell when its specific condition is met, managing complexity through structured organization of handover options.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Loss of substance

If consecutive conditional handovers are enabled, then data loss is reduced, but signaling overhead is minimized

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata lossVSAvoidsignaling overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of substanceVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple handover configurations and conditions into a single conditional handover command that the wireless device receives from the source base station. This combined information enables the device to perform multiple consecutive handovers autonomously without requiring separate signaling for each handover event, reducing overall signaling overhead while preventing data loss.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentUS11540183B2Consecutive conditional handovers

Publication Date: 2022.12.27 APPLE INC

AI summary

This disclosure relates to techniques for performing consecutive conditional handovers. A cellular base station may provide conditional handover information for multiple conditional handovers to a wireless device. The conditional handover information may include information for performing a conditional handover from a cell provided by the cellular base station to at least one cell, and information for performing a conditional handover from one or more of those cells to at least one cell. The wireless device may perform multiple consecutive conditional handovers using the conditional handover information.