Method and apparatus for cell biasing in a cellular communication system

摘要

The invention relates to a system for cell biasing for idle mode subscriber units (207) in a cellular communication system. A base station (201) comprises a load processor (211) for locally determining load information for a cell in response to load related operating conditions of the cell. The load information may be a congestion level of the cell. The load processor (211) is coupled to a bias processor (213) that determines a bias parameter for the cell in response to the load information. The bias parameter may be a signal strength offset value to be applied the signal strength measurements for that cell. The base station (201) further comprises a transmitter (215) for broadcasting the bias parameter. An idle mode subscriber unit (207) measures the signal strength of the surrounding base stations (201, 205) and compensates the measurements by the bias parameter. It then selects the cell having the highest modified signal strength as a serving cell.