Creating neighbour cell lists

摘要

A neighbor cell list is formed, for use in a basestation of a cellular communications network. For each of a plurality of neighbor cells, a value of a first component is assigned, depending on whether or not the basestation can detect signals transmitted from said neighbor cell. A value of a second component is assigned, depending on a history of successful or unsuccessful handover attempts to said neighbor cell. The values of the first and second components are combined to form a weighting parameter, for use in determining a handover priority to be given to said neighbor cell in the neighbor cell list.

主权项

1. A method of operation of a femtocell access point in a cellular communications network, the method comprising:
receiving information about channel numbers, scrambling codes and unique cell identifiers used by femtocell access points in the network; receiving signals broadcast by other femtocell access points in the network whose transmissions can be detected; extracting from said received signals information relating to the channel numbers and scrambling codes used by the other femtocell access points whose transmissions can be detected; upon detecting signals from first and second other femtocell access points that are using the same channel number and scrambling code as each other, the method further comprising:
using different timing offsets of the signals from the first and second other femtocell access points to distinguish between said signals;extracting from said signals from the first and second other femtocell access points information relating to the unique cell identifiers used by the first and second other femtocell access points; andincluding at least the first and second other femtocell access points in a neighbour cell list of said femtocell access point.