Automatic provisioning of handoff parameters for femtocell

摘要

Automatic provisioning of an access point base station or femtocell. The method may include the femtocell transmitting first information (e.g., location information, signal measurement information, capability information, etc.) to a service provider (e.g., over an IP network). The femtocell may receive second information from the service provider, where the second information includes one or more operational parameters. The operational parameters may include hand-off parameters, admission policy parameters, PN or scrambling codes, power parameters, and/or other parameters. The femtocell may operate according to the received parameters to provide access for a plurality of access terminals in a local area.

主权项

1. A method for obtaining optimal parameters to perform efficient handoffs between a macro base station and a femtocell access point, the method comprising:
performing at least one measurement of signals received by the femtocell access point from at least one access terminal, wherein the femtocell access point provides wireless communication in a local area; obtaining the femtocell access point's geographical location; obtaining the femtocell access point's propagation characteristics based on the selected femtocell access point's coverage area and environmental information; transmitting the at least one measurement, the geographical location, and the propagation characteristics together with the femtocell access point's capabilities to a service provider in first information; and receiving second information from the service provider, wherein the second information obtained from the femtocell access point's measurements and derived propagation model contains a plurality of handoff parameters comprising:
a maximum transmit power for the femtocell access point;an ID code, or time offset and transmit frequency assignment, for the femtocell access point;a macro base station to femtocell access point handover power threshold; andafter detecting that the threshold is exceeded, a femtocell access point to macro base station handover threshold; wherein, when the macro base station to femtocell access point handover threshold is exceeded, the femtocell access point sends a handoff request message to a cellular infrastructure over the infrastructure's fixed internet interface requesting to discontinue transmission from the macro base station to the at least one access terminal; and wherein when the femtocell access point to the macro base station handover threshold is lower than the macro base station to femtocell access point handover threshold, the femtocell access point discontinues transmission to the at least one access terminal and sends a transmission termination message to the cellular infrastructure over the infrastructure's fixed internet interface.