Method for identifying user equipment to a femtocell

摘要

The described method provides for an efficient method for user equipment (104) to identify when it is in proximity to an assigned femtocell (108) in order to be handed over to a femtocell from a macro cell. As the user the equipment moves within a macro cell (106) that is defined by a serving base station (102), it is determined (202) that it is in the range of or in proximity to the femtocell to which it is registered or subscribed. Upon notification that it is near the femtocell, the user equipment sends (204) a message to the serving base station of the macro cell indicating the user equipment has identified its femtocell. The serving base station then sends (208) a message to femtocell to turn on the femtocell so that a handover of the user equipment from the macro cell and serving base station and the femtocell can be initiated. The serving base station sends (212) a response to the user equipment indicating that the femtocell is ready to receive the user equipment as a part of handover procedure.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
determining, by a user equipment, that the user equipment is within range of a home cell wherein the home cell is one of a plurality of cells that are within an area served by a serving base station, and wherein the home cell is a femtocell when the home cell is in a macro cell served by the serving base station in which the femtocell is located; sending, by the user equipment, a first message to the serving base station near which the home cell is located in response to determining that the user equipment is within range of the home cell, the first message including identification information for the home cell and an on bit indicating that the home cell is to be activated, wherein the first message causes the serving base station to send a second message to the home cell to activate the home cell, and wherein activating the home cell comprises at least one of turning on the home cell and increasing control channel transmission power; receiving, by the user equipment, a third message indicating that the home cell is activated for the user equipment.