Virtual Soft Handoff Tunneling for Seamless WiFi-Cellular QoS
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless communication systems face challenges in maintaining high quality of service (QoS) with minimal disruption during handoff between different wireless interfaces, such as IEEE 802.11 and 3G/4G cellular networks, particularly for voice and video applications, without adequate solutions for combining receptions from multiple networks.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a virtual soft handoff technique using a tunnel server that duplicates and routes data units through multiple network tunnels, ensuring robust connectivity by maintaining simultaneous communication over both networks until one is determined to be of adequate quality, and then dropping the redundant data unit.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If hard handoff techniques are used to switch between cellular and WiFi networks, then the handoff process is simple to implement, but connectivity disruptions occur and QoS deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system establishes a tunnel connection before actual handoff occurs. The tunnel server is configured with both cellular and WiFi interface endpoints in advance, creating a pre-established communication path that will remain active during network transitions, thereby preventing connectivity disruptions
Solution Approach 2:
A tunnel server acts as an intermediary between the communication device and the network. This mediator maintains the data unit transmission path during handoff by receiving data units from one interface and forwarding them through the established tunnel, ensuring continuous connectivity even when the underlying network interface changes
2Reliability
If data units are transmitted through multiple network interfaces simultaneously, then QoS and connectivity robustness are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a virtual copy of the network interface through tunneling. Instead of managing multiple physical interfaces directly, the tunnel server creates a virtual interface representation that simplifies the complexity while maintaining the benefits of multi-interface transmission for improved QoS and connectivity robustness
3Reliability
If soft handoff techniques are applied at physical layer in cellular networks, then signal robustness is improved, but the technique cannot be directly applied to WiFi-cellular inter-network handoff
Solution Approach 1:
The tunnel server implements a universal handoff mechanism that works across different network types (cellular and WiFi). By creating a network-agnostic tunneling layer, the system applies soft handoff principles universally to inter-network transitions, making the robustness benefits applicable beyond just cellular soft handoff scenarios
Data Source
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AI summary
In some embodiments, a non-transitory processor-readable medium includes code to cause a processor to receive at a tunnel server, a data unit addressed to a communication device, and define, a first instance of the data unit and a second instance of the data unit. The first instance of the data unit is sent to the communication device via a first tunnel defined between at least the tunnel server and a first base station associated with a first network. The second instance of the data unit is sent to the communication device via a second tunnel defined between at least the tunnel server and a second base station associated with a second network. The second instance of the data unit is dropped by the communication device when the first instance of the data unit is received before the second instance of the data unit.