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Google patents method for managing 5G connection fallbacks

Google has been granted a patent for a method that helps smartphones manage their connection state when they fall back from 5G to a lower-level radio connection. The system allows the phone's internal software layers to coordinate, ensuring the device correctly updates its status to either idle or connected mode so data can continue flowing.

Why it mattersThis is a routine improvement to how mobile devices handle network transitions, which helps maintain stable data connections without users noticing any change.

In the filing’s own words

This document describes techniques and apparatuses for handling mobility management state transitions after fallback to radio resource control (RRC) establishment. In implementations, a user equipment UE transmits an RRC request to a network to initiate an RRC connection procedure. Afterward, the UE receives an RRC setup message from the network. The UE communicates, by an RRC protocol layer at the UE, an indication of the fallback to a fifth-generation mobility-management (5GMM) protocol layer at the UE. The UE then transitions the 5GMM protocol layer to a 5GMM idle state. In implementations, the UE then communicates, by the RRC protocol layer, an RRC connection-established indication to the 5GMM protocol layer, and transitions the 5GMM protocol layer to a 5GMM connected state to enable data transmission and reception with the network.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method performed by a user equipment for handling a mobility management state transition after fallback to a radio-resource-control establishment, the method comprising: transmitting a radio-resource-control request to a network to initiate a radio-resource-control connection procedure while operating in a mobility-management connected state; receiving, in response to the transmitting the radio-resource-control request, a radio-resource-control setup message from the network; based on the receiving of the radio-resource-control setup message from the network, communicating, from a radio-resource-control protocol layer at the user equipment to a mobility-management protocol layer at the user equipment, an indication of the fallback; and transmitting, in response to the receiving the radio-resource-control setup message, a radio-resource-control setup-complete message to the network, the radio-resource-control setup-complete message including a mobility-management message generated by the mobility-management protocol layer, the mobility-management message comprising: a service request; or a registration request.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
Method for handling a mobility management state transition after fallback to RRC establishment
Patent number
US12750909B2
Application number
18671650
Filed
May 22, 2024
Granted
Sep 29, 2026
Inventors
1
Claims
20

Classified under

H04W 76/19 Electricity & electronicsH04W 76/25 Electricity & electronicsH04W 76/27 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.