Abstract: A method and corresponding system for controlling billing for communication service. An area of coverage of a first wireless serving system is dynamically determined based on signals from one or more mobile stations served by the first wireless serving system. A determination is then made as to whether a mobile station was within the determined area of coverage of the first wireless serving system when the mobile station was being served with communication service by a second wireless serving system. And a billing rate, for billing for the communication service, is selected based at least in part on the determination.

Abstract: When a roaming wireless communication device seeks to originate a communication, the device may originate the communication in a roaming system because the device has not yet run a next scheduled scan for a more preferred, home, system. In the disclosed method, the device may evaluate a current distance from where the device was located when it successfully communicated to a home system and may further evaluate a current duration from that successful communication. If the distance is threshold short and perhaps further if the duration is threshold short, then the device may originate the communication in the home system without having detected the home system through a scheduled rescan. Further, to help expedite origination, the device may set its origination power at the power that it used for the last successful communication.

Abstract: A request to establish a call involving a wireless communication device (WCD) served by a radio access network (RAN) may be received. The WCD may receive signals from the RAN via a plurality of wireless coverage areas at respective signal strengths. The plurality of wireless coverage areas may be defined by the RAN. A media codec to use for the call and a target bitrate for the media codec to use during the call may be determined. Based on the target bitrate, a set of n wireless coverage areas through which the WCD and the RAN communicate during the call may be selected. The value of n may be between one and a predetermined maximum number. The set of n wireless coverage areas may be selected from the plurality of wireless coverage areas.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for managing signaling traffic in a radio access network (RAN) that provides wireless service to wireless communication devices (WCDs) in a plurality of wireless coverage areas. The RAN may determine a level of ingress of WCDs into a wireless coverage area and/or a level of egress of WCDs out of the wireless coverage area. Further, the RAN may then select a respective transmission rate in the coverage area for one or more control-channel messages based at least in part on a determined ingress level and/or at least in part on a determined egress level. The RAN may then broadcast each control-channel message at that message's respective selected transmission rate.

Abstract: Methods and systems for using coverage or capacity classifications regarding a macro RF network to manage registration of femtocells with a service provider network (SPN) so as to avoid signaling overload are described herein. After a wide-scale power outage within an area where multiple femtocells are located, the femtocells can power on and attempt to register with the SPN at about the same time. The femtocells can scan RF signals received from the macro network and classify the received RF signals with respect to capacity or coverage of the macro network at the time of transmitting the RF signals. A device within the SPN can determine whether classification of the received RF signals is associated with dropping or accepting a registration request associated with the classified RF signals. The SPN device can accept the registration request or drop the registration request and request the femtocell to transmit another registration request.

Abstract: Location information may be provided for a mobile station based on the serving area that is currently serving the mobile station. The location information may include a representative location (e.g., a centroid location of the serving area) and an uncertainty (e.g., a distance between the representative location and a boundary of the serving area). The representative location and uncertainty for a serving area may depend on the status of at least one neighboring area. For example, the effective size of a serving area may become larger when a neighboring area is heavily loaded or out of service. In an embodiment, a location server receives a request to locate a mobile station, selects a representative location and uncertainty for the serving area that is serving the mobile station based on the status of at least one neighboring area, and reports the representative location and uncertainty in response to the request.

Abstract: In systems and methods of random access preamble selection, a first plurality of random access preambles and a second plurality of random access preambles are stored at an access node. A random access channel request is received from a wireless device at the access node, the random access channel request comprising an application type of an application running on the wireless device, and a network load, a priority class of the wireless device, and a mobility of the wireless device are determined. When the first plurality of random access preambles is not exhausted, the network load meets a load criteria, the priority class of the wireless device meets a priority criteria, the mobility of the wireless device meets a mobility criteria, and the application type of the application meets an application criteria a random access preamble is assigned to the wireless device from the first plurality of random access preambles.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods and systems to provide, to a wireless communication device (WCD), a mapping between a first unsupported message type and a first supported message type. One embodiment takes the form of a method that involves a base station transmitting in a coverage area, for receipt by a given WCD configured to send a first unsupported message type to the base station, a mapping that correlates the first unsupported message type with the first supported message type. As a result of transmitting the mapping, the base station receives, from the given WCD, a message of the first supported message type in the place of a message of the first unsupported message type.

Abstract: A method and corresponding apparatus to help avoid a scenario where a wireless communication device registers within a first radio access network (RAN) but then fails to transition from that first RAN to engage in a communication on a second RAN. When a WCD detects coverage of the first RAN, the WCD may condition its registration with the first RAN on the WCD also being within coverage of the second RAN.

Abstract: A method and system for offering to provide a femtocell to a subscriber is disclosed. The method includes a computer system making a first determination (i) that a level of wireless performance experienced by a mobile station of a subscriber at a given location is less than a threshold and (ii) that at least one cause of the level of wireless performance being less than the threshold level is a network issue rather than a mobile-station specific issue. The method further includes the computer system making a second determination that the given location is location associated with a billing address of the subscriber. The method then includes, in response to making the first and second determinations, the computer system initiating a process of offering to provide a femtocell to the subscriber.

Abstract: A presence service is described that is particularly adapted for use by mobile telecommunications devices. Mobile devices operate as presentities that have one or more watchers. The watchers may themselves be mobile devices. The mobile devices can alternately be in or out of a display state. The display state corresponds to a state in which a user of the mobile device is accessing or is likely to access presence information of a different mobile device. A mobile device reports its state changes to a presence server when it has at least one watcher that is in the display state. If the mobile device has no watchers that are in the display state, and if the mobile device is not itself in the display state and watching other mobile devices, presence state reports from the mobile device are kept to a minimum.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for enabling adaptive per-antenna rate control based on network conditions for a wireless communication device (WCD). The WCD and a radio access network (RAN) may form a communication link that has multiple data streams, each data stream received by a different antenna of the WCD. Each data stream may have a different encoding, and thus a different data rate. Additionally, each encoding may have an associated signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirement to decode. The more complicated an encoding, the higher the data rate the encoding supports. However, more complicated encodings also need a higher SINR to decode. By first decoding a data stream with a low-complexity encoding, the data can be subtracted from a data stream having a more complicated encoding. Therefore, the SINR of the data stream having a more complicated encoding may be increased, and increase the likelihood of it being decodable.

Abstract: A wireless device may establish a data connection with a 2G or 3G wireless network, which the wireless device can then use to engage in packet data communications with other devices on packet data networks. The wireless device may then roam from one wireless network to the other wireless network, such by roaming from the 2G wireless network to the 3G wireless network or vice versa. The wireless device may then transfer its data connection between the networks, thereby allowing the wireless device to continue in any established data sessions with other devices.

Abstract: A database is maintained that maps source cell regions to channel condition on the neighbor cell(s) coverage. The database also tracks whether the neighbor cell has better, weaker, or similar signal strength than the source cell. The channel condition and bitrate requirement of each wireless device being served by the source cell are also tracked. Once a particular neighbor cell has been selected for traffic offload (i.e., handover of one or more wireless devices), the source cell uses the database to select which wireless devices should send measurement reports. Those wireless devices with channel conditions that are mapped in the database to the target cell's coverage are designated for possible selection. Among these wireless devices, either the wireless devices with the highest or lowest bitrate requirements are selected to provide measurement reports for the target cell.

Abstract: An access terminal in a coverage area of an access network may be monitoring a level of loading on the coverage area's reverse link, such as by monitoring a series of reverse activity bits sent by the access network. The access terminal may then detect new data for transmission to the access network and responsively select a reverse-link data rate based on the monitored level of loading. In this respect, the access terminal may select (a) a first data rate (e.g., a reverse-link data rate at which the access terminal last transmitted data) if the access terminal detects a low load, and (b) a second data rate (e.g., a minimum available reverse-link data rate) if the access terminal detects a high load, where the second data rate is lower than the first data rate. The access terminal may also consider its location in selecting the reverse-link data rate.

Abstract: A method and system for providing anonymous sidebars between participants in a existing conference session such as a push-to-talk session for instance. Each applicable participant in the session has a private handle that represents the participant but that does not reveal the true identity of the participant. Further, the conference server hosting the session maintains or has access to mapping data that correlates each participant's private handle with a participant identifier that is sufficient to allow the conference server to engage in network communication with the participant. The server provides each participant with a list of other participant's private handles, and a given participant can then initiate a sidebar by sending a sidebar-initiation request designating one or more private handles selected from the list. Using its mapping data, the server then identifies the corresponding participants and sets up the anonymous sidebar.

Abstract: A mobile station measures a pseudonoise (PN) offset and a signal strength of a spread spectrum signal transmitted by a given sector of a spread spectrum communication system. The measured PN offset differs from a nominal PN offset of the given sector. The mobile station transmits a measurement message that includes the measured PN offset and the measured signal strength. The spread spectrum communication system receives the measurement message and determines a location associated with the mobile station (e.g., based on location coordinates included in the measurement message). The spread spectrum communication system determines the nominal PN offset of the given sector based on the measured PN offset and the location associated with the mobile station. If the given sector is a valid handoff destination, the spread spectrum communication system transmits to the mobile station a handoff instruction that identifies the given sector by the measured PN offset.

Abstract: Exemplary methods and systems for providing access to IMS services are disclosed herein.

Abstract: It is determined that a first channel loading of a first access node channel meets a loading threshold. Wireless devices in active communication over the first access node channel are identified, the wireless devices comprising an application running on each wireless device, each application comprising an application requirement which meets an application requirement criteria. The identified wireless devices are ranked into a first order based on a modulation and coding scheme assigned to each wireless device, and are further ranked in a second order within the first order based on an indication of an amount of data pending transmission from each wireless device when two or more wireless devices are assigned the same modulation and coding scheme. Each identified wireless device is instructed to operate on a second access node channel according to the second order, until the first channel loading does not meet the loading threshold.

Abstract: Multiple network resources are considered when distributing network load among access nodes. For example, traffic load, user load, and bearer load may all be considered in the decision to move a wireless device from one access node to another. An N-dimensional load vector is calculated where each of the N dimensions is associated with a network resource utilization factor. A load vector is calculated for each of the access nodes being considered for load balancing. The load vectors for access nodes under consideration for load balancing are subtracted to create a difference vector. When the magnitude of the difference vector is greater than a threshold, the communication system balances the load between the two access nodes.