Method and system for small cell discovery in heterogeneous cellular networks

摘要

A method and a user equipment in a network having a macro cell and at least one small cell, the method in one embodiment receiving a measurement restriction over a broadcast channel from the macro cell; and applying the restriction for a corresponding measurement at the user equipment. In one embodiment the method includes receiving a small cell list from the macro cell; and measuring at least one of a reference signal receive power and a reference signal received quality based on the received small cell list. The method includes, in one embodiment, receiving a neighboring small cell configurations from the macro cell; and utilizing the received small cell configurations to attach to a small cell. The method includes, in one embodiment, receiving an s-measure offset value over a broadcast channel from the macro cell; and applying the s-measure offset value to an s-measure for neighbor cell discovery.

主权项

1. A method at a user equipment in a network having a macro cell and at least one small cell, the method comprising:
receiving a small cell list from the macro cell; when a signal quality level of the macro cell is below a threshold, measuring signals of other macro cells; when the signal quality level of the macro cell is below the threshold plus a bias, measuring at least one of a reference signal receive power and a reference signal received quality of the small cells in the received small cell list; and connecting to one of the small cells from the small cell list or one of the other macro cells based on said measuring of the signals of the other macro cells and said measuring of the reference signal receive power and the reference signal received quality of the small cells.