ATTACHMENT, HANDOVER, AND TRAFFIC OFFLOADING BETWEEN 3GPP RANS AND WI-FI RANS

摘要

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method (150) is implemented by a base station (42, 700) that supports a 3GPP RAN (56) and has an associated Wi-Fi RAN (58) that is either supported by the base station (42, 700) or is supported by an access point (710) colocated with the base station (42, 700). The base station (42, 700) receives a request from a UE (54, 800). If the request is for a current Wi-Fi service capability of the base station (42, 700), the base station (42, 700) determines whether the Wi-Fi RAN has sufficient available resources to support QoS requirements of the UE (54, 800), and transmits a corresponding response to the UE (54, 800). If the response indicates that the Wi-Fi RAN (58) has sufficient available resources, the base station (42, 700) also transmits Wi-Fi credentials to the UE (54, 800) to enable the UE (54, 800) to access the Wi-Fi RAN (58). If sufficient available resources to support the QoS requirements are not available, Wi-Fi credentials are not sent to the UE (54, 800).