Addressing cell edge performance by extending ANDSF and Inter-RAT UE steering

Cell edge performance has always been challenging from network planning and performance perspectives. Several cell edge performance techniques and methods have been widely proposed to enhance it. Small cell heterogeneous network deployments (LTE/LTE-A cells and Hotspot 2.0 Passpoint certified access points) enable pervasive mobile experience, seamlessly connecting users though both radio access technologies (RAT). Underlying, 3GPP´s Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) provides transparent policy-based RAT selection and traffic steering. Current ANDSF specifications, however, do not support Real Time (RT) network performance awareness, crucial to intelligently steer traffic or users between 3GPP and non-3GPP RATs. Our contribution is a method of enhancing global LTE-LTE/A performance, focusing on cell edges by a) enhancing ANDSF capabilities using Radio Resource Control (RRC) System Information Block (SIB) to convey RT data to steering decision and b) intelligently steer low performance cell edge users to non-3GPP RAT access points, which we consider to be HS2.0.