A target cell receives a handover message originating from a source cell for a user equipment (UE) and receives buffered data for one or more protocol data unit (PDU) Sets in transition between the source cell and the UE. The target cell receives PDU Set information for the one or more PDU Sets and communicates with the UE based on the PDU Set information for the one or more PDU Sets. A source cell sends or receives a portion of a PDU Set with a UE. The apparatus initiates a handover of the UE to a target cell, provides buffered data for the PDU Set to the target cell, and provides PDU Set information for the PDU Set to the target cell.

The present invention provides an apparatus, a system, and a method for preventing TCP connection interruption. The apparatus determines that user equipment UE needs cell handover; and the apparatus sends a first instruction message to a server, where the first instruction message is used to instruct the server to stop sending downlink data to the proxy device, and sends cached downlink data to the UE. Therefore, the following problem is avoided: After UE is disconnected from a source cell and is connected to a new cell, because the UE does not receive partial downlink data cached by a TCP proxy or because partial cached data is lost, the UE initiates retransmission to a server, but the server does not retransmit an acknowledged packet according to a TCP protocol, causing TCP connection interruption and service interruption.

Methods for performing a handover in wireless communications for a user plane function (UPF) are disclosed. In an aspect, the method includes establishing a tunnel between the UPF and a target base station based on information in a path switch preparation request for a make before break handover of a user equipment (UE) from a source base station to the target base station, the path switch preparation request being received in response to a request originating by the target base station. The method further includes bi-casting a downlink data packet unit (PDU) to a source base station and to the target base station with a same sequence number (SN) in a tunnel protocol, receiving PDUs from the source base station and the target base station with corresponding PDUs having the same SNs in the tunnel protocol and discarding received duplicate PDUs based on the SNs in the tunnel protocol.

In a method for transferring packet data remaining in a first SeNB to a second SeNB via an MeNB, use of a communication line is inefficient. A base station in a communication system that includes a master cell base station, a secondary cell base station, a core network, and a terminal device, wherein: the base station has a reception unit for receiving, from the master cell base station, downlink user data received from the core network by the master cell base station, and a transmission unit for transmitting the downlink user data received to the terminal device; the reception unit receives, from the master cell base station, switching information indicating that the base station from which the master cell base station receives downlink user data is to be switched; and the transmission unit transmits remaining data to the secondary base station when the reception unit has received the switching information.

Techniques are described for improving service continuity for Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS) communications during handover. Techniques are included for supporting lossless handover and data forwarding during handover for peer-to-multiple (PTM) MBS transmission. Lossless handover may be achieved in part by the user equipment (UE) providing to the target base station an indication of the next packet of the MBS session to be received following an RRC reconfiguration message, and an indication of any MBS packets provided by the source base station prior to the RRC reconfiguration message that were not properly received by the UE. Data forwarding may be performed from the source base station to the target base station if the MBS session was not configured on the target base station prior to the handover. Data forwarding may be omitted if the MBS session was configured on the target base station prior to the handover.

A wireless RF access node is connected to a communication network and is adapted to provide communication services to a plurality of mobile entities. A server is connected to the communication network, wherein the server comprises a first publish-subscribe broker communications facility as part of a publish-subscribe broker network including one or more publish-subscribe broker communications facilities. The publish-subscribe broker network is operable to distribute published data packets between entities that have published data packets and entities that have subscribed to receive the published data packets via the publish-subscribe broker network. A second entity connected to any of the publish-subscribe broker communications facilities in the publish-subscribe broker network accepts communications from a first mobile entity if the second entity subscribes to data published by the first mobile entity through the publish-subscribe broker communications facility to which the second entity is connected.

Small base station, micro, femto or pico BTS (PBS) are connected via Un interface to a donor eNB DeNB. In case of a handover from that PBS packets that had not been acknowledged by a UE need to be forwarded to the target base station. Forwarding them via Un and DeNB to the target eNB causes latency and wast radio resources on Un. Thus, the DeNB uses information about the handover to buffer packets and, after being informed by PBS, forward those packets that had not been acknowledged by the UE. This procedure, therefore, saves resources on Un interface and reduces latency. No forwarding of those packets from PBS to DeNB is required. There is provided a method for forwarding data to a wireless terminal. The method is performed by a proxy node. The method comprises receiving data on a link between a core network and a backhaul hub node. The data is addressed to a wireless terminal served by, or handed over from, a serving network node. The method comprises receiving a first indication to forward the data to a target network node of the wireless terminal. The method comprises forwarding the data towards the target network node in response thereto. There is also provided a computer program for such a method and a proxy node configured to perform such a method.

A radio network (6) and a radio terminal (4) are configured to, when the radio terminal (4) is using a first cell (10) served by a first radio station (1) as a primary cell and a second cell (20) served by a second radio station (2) as a secondary cell, change the primary cell from the first cell (10) to a third cell (30) served by a third radio station (3) while keeping communication status information regarding the radio terminal (1) on the second cell (20). It is thus, for example, possible to enable a communication service in the secondary cell to be continued even after the primary cell is changed when the primary cell is changed during execution of carrier aggregation (e.g., Inter-eNB CA) on a plurality of cells served by different radio stations.

A method for a handover between distributed access points is disclosed, including receiving, by a central AP, an Ethernet frame; adding, by the central AP, a sequence number to the frame according to an address of a wireless terminal; sending, by the central AP to an AP 1, the frame to which the sequence number is added, and storing the frame to which the sequence number is added in a historical frame set of the wireless terminal; and sending, by the central AP, a frame in the historical frame set of the wireless terminal to an AP 2 when the wireless terminal is handed over from the AP 1 to the AP 2. If the wireless terminal moves fast, the central AP can send the frame in the historical frame set to the wireless terminal using the AP 2, so that a downlink packet loss is reduced.

A method and apparatus can be configured to determine a redundancy rate. The method can also include mirroring an amount of data from a first node to a second node based upon the determined redundancy rate. The method can also include transmitting a last-data-unit index or a next-data-unit index.