Random access aligned handover

摘要

A method and apparatus for reducing handover interruptions when a mobile device executes handover including a random access procedure is described herein. When handover is desirable, a time offset associated with a random access opportunity is determined. The time offset relates the timing of the next random access opportunity to the frame timing of a target access point. Based on the time offset, a network element, e.g., the mobile device, a serving access point, or a mobility management entity, determines a handover start time. Handover is executed at the determined start time to generally align the beginning of the handover execution with the beginning of the next random access opportunity, and therefore, to reduce handover interruption.