Method and apparatus for capacity driven intra-cell handover in a cellular telephone network

摘要

Existing communication connections in a cellular telephone base station can become allocated to communication equipment in a less than optimal fashion. To address this problem a detector identifies when an existing communication connection routed through the base station is terminated. The detector informs a processor which calculates a channel allocation for the remaining communication connections currently routed through the base station which optimizes channel utilization. The optimal channel allocation is then implemented through intra-cell handovers. The optimal channel allocation is based on assigning an existing communication connection having a lower channel rate requirement than is available on the communication channel currently carrying the existing communication connection to a communication channel having a lower channel rate capacity or assigning an existing communication connection from a less restrictive communication channel to a more restrictive communication channel having the same or lower channel rate capacity as the current communication channel.