Systems, methods and apparatus configured to manage neighbor cell lists

摘要

According to some wireless network standards the size of a neighbor cell list is restricted to a maximum size. The limited size of a neighbor cell list may not reflect the realities of a wireless network deployment, especially for deployments including numerous femto cells clustered in close proximity. Accordingly, as the concentration of macro cells and/or femto cells in an area increases, there lies a challenge to identify and communicate neighbor lists to user devices that reflect the arrangement of a particular portion of the deployment and the needs of the user devices. Various systems, methods and apparatus described herein are configured to provide a user device or a group of user devices a neighbor cell list that includes neighbor cell identifiers chosen from a candidate list.

主权项

1. A method of forming a list of neighboring wireless access points, the method comprising:
determining a candidate list, the candidate list including a plurality of neighboring wireless access points, wherein each of the plurality of neighboring wireless access points has at least one characteristic by which that particular neighboring wireless access point can be selected; and selecting, by a processor, at least one neighboring wireless access point from the candidate list to form a neighbor list based on reporting received from a plurality of user devices in communication with the neighboring wireless access point, the neighbor list including a subset of the plurality of neighboring wireless access points included in the candidate list, wherein the reporting corresponds to whether each of the plurality of user device accepted a previously transmitted neighbor list, wherein the plurality of neighboring wireless access points includes one or more base stations providing macro cells, one or more femto nodes providing cells smaller than macro cells, one or more wireless access points providing adjacent cells to one another, one or more wireless access points providing overlapping cells in combination with other wireless access points, or a combination thereof.