John R. Cartmell
Inter-RAT handover, 3G, handoff and routing, wireless communications
Inter-Radio Access Technology (IRAT) handovers are performed for dual mode devices when the quality of one radio access technology (RAT) falls below a threshold and the quality of another radio access technology is above a threshold. When the network and device decide that an IRAT handover (HO) is prudent, the quality of the current RAT is already poor. As per the standards, some of the signalling to coordinate an IRAT handover occurs on the link that is of poor quality. Often, the required signals get lost and the IRAT handover fails leaving a vexed user. An enhanced IRAT solution is presented herein where the current user location and the location of previous IRAT events are used to determine if a 3G-to-2G IRAT handover should be attempted before the quality of the current RAT becomes too poor to effectively carry signalling between the end-user device and the network.
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