A wireless communication network covers a certain geographic area by dividing the area into radio cells and each radio cell can be further divided into two or more sectors. The base stations, which conceptually locate at the center of respective cells/sectors of their coverage, transmit information to the mobile subscriber stations (MSS) via downlink (DL) radio signals. A mobile station is also known as a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station (SS), or a wireless station. The mobile stations transmit information to their serving base stations via uplink (UL) radio signals. A wireless communication network can be configured based on one of the number of wireless technology platforms such as IS-95, CDMA2000 1x, EV-DO, UMB, GSM, WCDMA, HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), LTE, WiMAX and WiFi wireless networks.
Two or more different-technology wireless communication networks may overlay with each other or may be deployed in adjacent geographic locations to provide access to mobile stations. Such heterogeneous access technology overlay and complementary network deployments are likely to proliferate. Mobile stations can be configured as multi-technology, multi-mode terminals and operate to provide access amongst multiple wireless networks. One technical issue in such inter-network access is load balancing across heterogeneous access networks.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds