| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 455444000 | Between macro and micro cells | 49 |
| 20100048216 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HANDOFF FROM A MACRO ACCESS NETWORK TO A FEMTO ACCESS POINT - Devices and methods are provided for handing off an access terminal from a macro base station to a femto access point (AP). In one embodiment, the method involves receiving a facilities directive or the like from a communication network entity, such as, for example, a serving mobile switching center (MSC). The method may involve selecting the femto AP based at least in part on femto configuration information, which may include at least one global identifier of the femto AP. The method may involve determining a uniform resource identifier of the femto AP based at least in part on at least one global identifier (e.g., MSC identifier and/or cell identifier). | 02-25-2010 |
| 20130029670 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING A HANDOVER IN A BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - The present invention relates to a broadband wireless access communication system, and particularly, to a method for supporting a handover in a broadband wireless access communication system. A method for performing a handover in a broadband wireless access communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a step in which a macro base station consists of mapping information using base station IDs (BS-IDs) used by a plurality of femto base stations and transmission-related information, and transmits the mapping information to the plurality of femto base stations; and a step in which the macro base station performs, using the mapping information, a handover in which one of the plurality of femto base stations is set as a target base station, upon receipt of a handover request from a terminal. | 01-31-2013 |
| 20130029669 | Beamforming For Cell Edge Capacity Improvement in a Heterogeneous Network - The present disclosure relates to providing a method of improving data rates in a heterogeneous network which is composed of macro cells and pico cells. User equipment is connected to the network via a macro base station serving a macro cell or a low power node serving a pico cell. A signal strength indicator is received from one or more UEs located in a macro cell and adjacent one or more pico cell. The location of a UE within a region of a macro cell or a pico cell is identified according to the signal strength indicator. Then, a weak coverage area of macro cell is identified according to the signal strength indicator and a beam forming antenna of a macro base station serving the macro cell where the UE is located, is directed to steer the antenna beam to an area of the cell requiring an improved signal strength indicator. | 01-31-2013 |
| 20130079021 | Enhanced Mobility to Home Base Station Cells - Cell relocation procedures to address handover between a macro radio network controller (RNC) and a home base station in a wireless communication network, while accounting for access control or membership verification procedures needed to support a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) at the home base station. An example method begins with the receiving of a request for handover of the mobile terminal from an RNC of the macro wireless network. A closed subscriber group (CSG) identifier for the home base station and a cell access mode for the home base station are then sent, to a core network node associated with the macro wireless network, for use by the core network node in membership verification or access control for the mobile terminal. In response, the home base station receives a CSG membership status for the mobile terminal from the core network node. | 03-28-2013 |
| 20130079020 | FEMTOCELL BASE STATION, AND A METHOD OF TRIGGERING TRANSFER OF A RADIO CONNECTION WITH A USER TERMINAL FROM A MACROCELL BASE STATION TO A FEMTOCELL BASE STATION - A method is provided of triggering transfer of connection by radio with a user terminal from a macrocell base station to a femtocell base station. The method comprises: the femtocell base station sending a triggering signal to the user terminal at the carrier frequency of the macrocell, the user terminal reacting by seeking to transfer the connection to the femtocell base generator station. | 03-28-2013 |
| 20130079019 | Method and System for Small Cell Discovery in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks - A method and a user equipment in a network having a macro cell and at least one small cell, the method in one embodiment receiving a measurement restriction over a broadcast channel from the macro cell; and applying the restriction for a corresponding measurement at the user equipment. In one embodiment the method includes receiving a small cell list from the macro cell; and measuring at least one of a reference signal receive power and a reference signal received quality based on the received small cell list. The method includes, in one embodiment, receiving a neighboring small cell configurations from the macro cell; and utilizing the received small cell configurations to attach to a small cell. The method includes, in one embodiment, receiving an s-measure offset value over a broadcast channel from the macro cell; and applying the s-measure offset value to an s-measure for neighbor cell discovery. | 03-28-2013 |
| 20100105395 | Method for the cell ID selection for femtocell basestation - A method for selecting a Cell ID for a base station is provided. The base station may be a Femto base station. The method includes obtaining a neighbor Cell ID corresponding to at least one of a plurality of neighboring base stations. The method also includes selecting a new Cell ID, where the new Cell ID is different than the neighbor Cell ID. The method further includes broadcasting a message containing the new Cell ID. Further, the method includes assigning the new Cell ID to the base station. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100144355 | TERMINAL, METHOD FOR HANDOVER THEREOF AND SUPPORTING METHOD FOR HANDOVER OF BASE STATION - A handover method of a terminal in a macro cell including a plurality of femto cells includes scanning information on a femto base station for managing a femto cell that is near the terminal from among the plurality of femto cells, and reporting information on the femto base station to a macro base station for managing the macro cell. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20130090119 | LOCATION PROCESSING IN SMALL CELLS IMPLEMENTING MULTIPLE AIR INTERFACES - A heterogeneous network which supports multiple communication technologies (e.g., communication in accordance with multiple air interface standards) in a unified architecture can provide near-term solutions to capacity problems. Specifically, in one embodiment, a heterogeneous network that includes both macro-base cells and pico cells and that incorporates longer range wireless air interfaces (e.g., second, third, or fourth generation wireless air interface standards) and shorter range wireless air interfaces (e.g., Wi-Fi) can be provided. Such a heterogeneous network can include the coordination of security, quality of service, assessment of mobility of user equipment, authentication, provisioning systems, and location information. | 04-11-2013 |
| 20100130212 | Femto Cell Handover In Wireless Communications - Techniques, apparatuses, and systems can include determining one or more handover base station candidates for a specific mobile station associated with a serving base station based at least on respective one or more proximities of the one or more handover base station candidates to the serving base station and one or more base station access privileges associated with the mobile station. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20130095839 | HIGH SPEED HANDOVERS IN A WIRELESS NETWORK - In one aspect, a wireless network management component can manage values for the generation of time to trigger parameters to handover requests between small cells and macro cells in a wireless network. In another aspect, a wireless management component can process various information to manage when handovers between small cells and macro cells should be disabled. In still another aspect, a wireless management component can process user equipment speed information and other network information to determine whether user equipment in communication with small cells should initiate a handover to macro cells. | 04-18-2013 |
| 20130059592 | FEMTOCELL TIMING SYNCHRONIZATION USING MOBILE DEVICE MESSAGING - Methods, systems, and devices are described for femtocells to retrieve neighboring macrocells' timing information, using messages from mobile devices that are associated with the relevant macrocell In some cases, detection of the femtocell, such as through an out-of-band detection, may trigger the mobile device to determine timing information with respect to the macrocell and/or the femtocell. In some embodiments, the mobile device associated with the macrocell may be in active state and looking for a candidate femtocell for handover. The femtocell may receive this timing information from the mobile device and utilize it to synchronize with the neighboring macrocell. Embodiments may address fine timing synchronization and tracking for asynchronous and quasi-synchronous wide-area wireless networks (e.g., 3GPP/3GPP2 variants like UMTS, LTE, CDMA 1x, 1x EV-DO, etc). | 03-07-2013 |
| 20100048215 | ADAPTIVE TRANSMISSION (TX)/RECEPTION (RX) PULSE SHAPING FILTER FOR FEMTOCELL BASE STATIONS AND MOBILE STATIONS WITHIN A NETWORK - A mobile station may include a standard transmit pulse-shaping filter, a standard receive pulse-shaping filter, a narrower transmit pulse-shaping filter, and a narrower receive pulse-shaping filter. A femtocell base station may include a narrower transmit pulse-shaping filter and a narrower receive pulse-shaping filter. The mobile station may utilize the narrower transmit pulse-shaping filter for transmitting uplink signals and the narrower receive pulse-shaping filter for receiving downlink signals when it is receiving service from the femtocell base station. The mobile station may utilize the standard transmit pulse-shaping filter for transmitting uplink signals and the standard receive pulse-shaping filter for receiving downlink signals when it is receiving service from a macrocell base station. | 02-25-2010 |
| 20110014921 | NETWORK ELEMENT, WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT AND METHOD FOR EMPLOYING MEASUREMENT REPORTS - A network element for a cellular communication system comprises a receiver for receiving a message from a wireless communication unit that comprises a measurement report. The network element further comprises signal processing logic, operably coupled to the receiver, for processing the received measurement report and extracting a global cell identifier therefrom. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110136491 | PAGING METHOD IN AREA WHERE MACRO ASN AND FEMTO ASN ARE LINKED IN MOBILE NETWORK, AND SYSTEM THEREFOR - A system and method for performing paging in an area where a macro Base Station (BS) and a femto Access Services Network (ASN) are linked in a mobile network are provided. The method includes, during handover of a Mobile Station (MS) between a macro ASN and a femto ASN, a first gateway of a current ASN acquires paging group information of a previous ASN. Upon request for paging from the MS in the current ASN, the first gateway requests a BS of the previous ASN to transmit paging information to the MS based on the paging group information of the previous ASN. By doing so, paging success rate may be improved for an MS in coverage of a macro ASN linked to a femto BS, and the high paging success rate may be guaranteed regardless of whether the handover scheme is a controlled handover scheme or an uncontrolled handover scheme. | 06-09-2011 |
| 20110287768 | WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, MOBILE STATION, BASE STATION, AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHOD - One object of the present invention is to improve stability of wireless communication, regardless of a movement speed of a mobile station by estimating a movement speed of a mobile station using a signal prepared in advance for a used standard and selecting an appropriate base station. In the wireless communication system | 11-24-2011 |
| 20100331000 | MACRO-TO-FEMTO CELL RESELECTION - The present invention discloses a method including: storing identification information or location information for a handover previously performed by a mobile system; estimating when the mobile system enters within a coverage area of a target femtocell; recognizing the coverage area based on the identification information or the location information; and scanning for the target-femtocell prior to handover. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20100113036 | Apparatus and method for operating small cell in wireless communication system - A Handover apparatus and method of a Mobile Station (MS) in a wireless communication system in which at least one small cell resides in a macro cell includes, when entering a neighboring small cell, checking a movement speed of the MS. The method also includes determining whether to hand over to the small cell by taking into account the movement speed of the MS. When it is determined not to hand over to the small cell, that MS transmits small cell penetration information to a macro Base Station (BS); allocates a macro only resource from the macro BS; and communicates with the macro BS in the small cell using the macro only resource allocated from the macro BS. | 05-06-2010 |
| 20100113035 | LOCATION-BASED HANDOVERS FROM A MACROCELL TO A FEMTOCELL USING EVENT-TRIGGERED MEASUREMENT REPORTING - The present invention provides a method for implementation in user equipment that is configured to communicate with a wireless communication system that comprises one or more macro-cells and one or more femtocells. The method includes comparing, at the user equipment, a location of the user equipment and a location of one or more femtocells. The method also includes transmitting, from the user equipment to the macrocell(s), a first measurement report, with a location-based event, when the comparison indicates that the user equipment is within a selected range of the femtocell(s). | 05-06-2010 |
| 20100120438 | COMMUNICATION NETWORK METHOD AND APPARATUS INCLUDING MACRO BASE STATION AND FEMTO BASE STATION - A communications network comprises a macro base station for providing service to a macrocell and a femto base station in a femtocell, wherein the femtocell overlies the macrocell, the femto base station is configured to perform self-configuration using resource profiles, and resource profiles include pre-configured profiles and frequency reuse information. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20120034924 | CONTROL CHANNEL ARCHITECTURE - A communication system includes at least a large service area (LSA) base station having a LSA geographical service area and a small service area (SSA) base station having a SSA geographical service area that is smaller than the LSA geographical service area and at least partially overlaps the LSA geographical service area in an overlap region. The LSA base station is configured to provide wireless service to first mobile communication devices which includes exchanging communication data and is assigned a first logical control channel comprising first control information corresponding to the first mobile communication devices. The SSA base station is configured to provide wireless service to second mobile communication devices which includes exchanging other communication data and is assigned a second logical channel comprising second control information corresponding to the second mobile communication devices. The first logical channel and the second logical channel also have common control information that is the same. A controller in the system allocates transmission of the common control information from at least one of the base stations over a physical channel having a defined transmission time and transmission frequency. If transmission of the common control information is allocated from both base stations, the common control information is allocated for transmission by the LSA base station and the SSA base station over the physical channel. | 02-09-2012 |
| 20100120437 | CELLULAR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREFOR - A cellular communication system comprises an access point ( | 05-13-2010 |
| 20080293420 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REGISTRATION OF MOBILE STATION TO COMPACT BASE STATION USING RFID IN A BROADBAND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - An apparatus and method for registration of a Mobile Station (MS) to a compact Base Station (BS) using Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) in a broadband wireless communication system are provided. The method includes receiving RFID tag information of the MS from an RFID receiver, determining whether the MS is a service registration mobile station using the received RFID tag information, and if the MS is a service registration mobile station, performing a serving BS change into the compact BS for the MS and then initiating a service for the MS. | 11-27-2008 |
| 20080305801 | METHOD AND APPARATUS TO ALLOW HAND-OFF FROM A MACROCELL TO A FEMTOCELL - A method for hand-off of a CDMA access mobile from a macrocell to a femtocell is disclosed. The method includes tracking each femtocell which mobile stations have allowed access incorporating a mobile station identification for each of the mobile stations. The method continues with storing the mobile station identification for each femtocell. This may occur in a database or similar structure. The message continues on with requesting a hand-off from the macrocell to the femtocell via PN offset and the method concludes with querying all femtocells that have that PN offset that are within range of the macrocell's neighbor list. If only one femtocell fits that criteria the method is done. If more than one femtocell fits that criteria, a priority list may be set up based at least in part on the number of times and/or frequency that the mobile station has been allowed access on the femtocell. The method could include allocating resources for all high priority femtocells and cleaning up resources for the femtocells that do not send a hand-off complete message. | 12-11-2008 |
| 20080268854 | Multi-Stage Setup for Long-Term Evolution Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service Transmissions - A system for providing a service is provided. The system includes a central control to promote a plurality of cells to use a first counting method to determine whether user equipment within the plurality of cells are interested in the service. Based on responses from at least one of the cells having interested user equipment, the central control promotes the at least one of the cells to either provide the service via point-to-multipoint broadcast, or use a second counting method to determine whether to provide the service via point-to-multipoint broadcast or point-to-point communication. | 10-30-2008 |
| 20110189998 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SEARCHING FOR AN ALLOWED FEMTOCELL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - An apparatus and a method for searching for an allowed femtocell in a wireless communication system. A method for providing neighbor base station information from a femto base station to a User Equipment (UE) allowed to access in a wireless communication system includes, when the allowed UE initially accesses or when the neighbor base station information of the femto base station is changed, generating a message comprising the neighbor base station information of the femto base station. The method also includes sending the generated message to the allowed UE. | 08-04-2011 |
| 20080318580 | Method And Apparatus For Power Management In Handover Between Heterogeneous Networks - A method for power management in handover between heterogeneous networks comprising: an MIH layer obtains power information and provides it for an MIH user layer; the MIH user layer determines the handover policy according to the power information. In various embodiments of the disclosure, the MIH layer triggers an event so that the MIH user layer can obtain power information, and select a lower-layer network connection automatically according to the current power status, thus implementing handover; the MIH user layer sends a query request to the MIH layer to obtain power consumption parameters from the network, and selects a lower-layer network connection according to the power consumption and the current power status, thus implementing handover and making more accurate and effective decisions in the handover. | 12-25-2008 |
| 20110143759 | METHOD OF PERFORMING HANDOVER IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - A method in which a terminal performs handover is provided. The method includes: receiving a broadcast message including system information from at least one femto base station; detecting at least one candidate femto base station using the broadcast message; transmitting a handover request message including information of the at least one candidate femto base station based on the system information to the macro base station; receiving a handover response message to the handover request message from the macro base station; and performing handover to a target femto base station of the at least one candidate femto base station based on information that is included in the handover response message. | 06-16-2011 |
| 20120196605 | Transfer of Sessions for Femtocells to Macro Mobile Networks - A method, server and computer program product is provided for transferring a session from a femtocell to a macromobile network. A request to transfer the session from the femtocell to a macromobile network is received. The request is translated into a format used by the macromobile network to receive session set-up requests and the translated request is provided to the macromobile network. | 08-02-2012 |
| 20100261476 | Method and Equipment for Transferring Information of Neighboring Cell in Wireless Communications System - A method for transferring information of a neighboring cell in a wireless communications system includes locating position information of user equipment (UE) when detecting that the UE is in a service connection state, and if determining that the UE is in a coverage threshold range of a micro-cell adjacent to a current macro-cell according to the position information of the UE, transferring information of the micro-cell to the UE. Corresponding network equipment is also provided. | 10-14-2010 |
| 20110244870 | METHOD FOR OPERATING FEMTOCELL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - A method for operating a femtocell in a wireless communication system comprises the steps of: triggering the switching from the operation mode for providing a service to closed subscriber group (CSG) terminals which belong to a specific terminal group and to non-CSG terminals which do not belong to the specific terminal group, to the operation mode for providing the service only to said CSG terminals; and commanding said non-CSG terminals to change the operation mode, and carrying out a handover. The method of the present invention improves efficiency of femtocell operation, and reduces restrictions on terminals disposed in the vicinity of the femtocell. The method of the present invention can utilize the unused frequency range of the femtocell, thereby providing a service with a high data ratio. | 10-06-2011 |
| 20100197311 | HANDOVER FROM A MACRO CELL BACK TO A FEMTO CELL - A method for a cellular network ( | 08-05-2010 |
| 20090325583 | User initiated mobile learning of preferred femtocell - A method and apparatus are provided to allow a mobile communications device to identify and store the locations of femtocells which are not contained on a preferred femtocell list of the mobile communications device. Upon identifying a specific femtocell, an authorized mobile communications device may register with the specific femtocell to initiate and receive calls. Furthermore, the present invention allows the mobile communications device to employ the stored location information to automatically identify the specific femtocell whenever the mobile communications device is in a vicinity of the specific femtocell. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20100056160 | Appatatus and method for transmitting inter-working signal in wireless communication system - A Base Station (BS) includes an apparatus and method for transmitting cell information. The BS is in the a communication system of a small cell size in a wireless communication environment in which a communication system of a large cell size and the communication system of the small cell size are hierarchically constructed in the same area. The method includes confirming reference signal transmission information for transmitting a reference signal including its own cell information, if a reference signal transmission interval arrives according to the reference signal transmission information, transmitting the reference signal through an operation frequency of a macro BS of the large cell size including the BS itself, and, if it is not the reference signal transmission interval, providing service through its own operation frequency or operating in a power saving mode. | 03-04-2010 |
| 20110151878 | METHOD OF APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING SWITCHING IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - Disclosed is a method for performing switching between a macro evolved Node B (eNB) and a home eNB (HeNB) in a mobile communication system including broadcasting, by the HeNB, a length of an HeNB ID to a UE; notifying, by the UE, an HeNB indication information containing the length of the HeNB ID to the macro eNB; transmitting, by the macro eNB, a switching request message to a mobile station mobility management entity, the message including a target ID; finding, by the MME, the HeNB or an HeNB gateway according to the target ID, and performing a switching process from the macro eNB to the HeNB. With the described switching method for the mobile communication system, UE can move between the macro eNB and the HeNB. | 06-23-2011 |
| 20120034925 | COMMUNICATION METHOD OF MACRO BASE STATION AND MICRO BASE STATION FOR INTERFERENCE CONTROL - A communication method of a micro base station for interference control is provided. The communication method includes determining whether to perform a handover of macro user equipment from a macro base station to a micro base station based on interference from the macro user equipment served by the macro base station to micro user equipment served by the micro base station, searching for an index of a resource allocable to the macro user equipment, and transmitting, to the macro base station, a handover request message including the index of the resource allocable to the macro user equipment. | 02-09-2012 |
| 20110021201 | APPARATUS AND METHOD OF DETERMINING MOBILITY STATE IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - An apparatus and method of determining a mobility state is provided. A user equipment determines a size of a cell to be reselected by performing cell reselection, and determines the mobility state on the basis of the number of cell reselections and a size of the cell. Unnecessary cell reselection can be avoided even if the user equipment enters an area where a micro cell and a macro cell coexist. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20090291690 | Femtocell Channel Assignment and Power Control for Improved Femtocell Coverage and Efficient Cell Search - A method and a communication system including femtocells within a macrocell efficiently manage interference between the different femtocells, and between each femtocell and a macrocell. An efficient frequency assignment scheme for the femtocells minimizes interference between a femtocell and a macrocell and among different femtocells using a spectrum-sensing technique carried out by the femtocells. The frequency assignment scheme selects a suitable channel from a set of candidate channels and ensures that the femtocell has an acceptable coverage area even when it is close to the macrocell base station (BS). The frequency assignment scheme favors a co-channel implementation to take advantage of the hand-off and cell search characteristics of the co-channel implementation. In one embodiment, a joint power control and frequency band assignment technique is used, which partitions the coverage area of the macrocell into an inner region, a power control region, and an outer region. Depending on a femtocell's location, it is assigned a certain power level and a frequency band. Power control may be used within the power-control region while, in the other regions, a fixed transmission power may be used. | 11-26-2009 |
| 20120028645 | COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE USING CHANGE OF TYPE OF FEMTO BASE STATION - Disclosed is a communication technique using the change of type of a femto base station. The femto base station is able to change the type of CSG opening/closing depending on conditions, and broadcasts the information on the change. A terminal is able to determine the network entry/handover to a corresponding femto cell by using the broadcasted information. The change of cell type of a CSG femto cell can be used when interference adjustment is required depending on the resource conditions of a femto cell. | 02-02-2012 |
| 20110092215 | NETWORK CONTROLLER AND SMALL BASE STATION - A small base station may report to a network controller about whether a radio frequency (RF) signal transmitted from a macro base station is sensed. The network controller may control an operational mode of the small base station depending on whether the RF signal is sensed. Accordingly, the small base station may not transmit the RF signal at all times, and thus, it is possible to reduce an interference between a small cell and a macro cell or interference between the small cell and another small cell. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20100093358 | WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND HANDOVER METHOD THEREIN - A wireless communication system and handover method for the wireless communication system are provided. A handover method for a wireless communication system including a plurality of femto cells and at least one macro cell within which the femto cells are disposed includes determining, at a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a handover of a terminal to a femto base station based on a measurement report of the terminal and preset handover parameters, sending a radio link setup request message to a femto base station gateway, the radio link setup request message including a uplink scrambling code and an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the terminal and a Logical Cell Identifier (LCID) of femto base stations reusing frequency of a macro base station, searching, at the femto base station gateway, for femto base stations of which LCIDs match the LCID contained in the radio link setup request message, and performing, when only one LCID-matched femto base station is discovered, the handover of the terminal to the LCID-matched femto base station. | 04-15-2010 |
| 20120122460 | MOBILITY FOR USER EQUIPMENT IN CLOSED SUBSCRIBER GROUP ENVIRONMENT - In one exemplary embodiment, a method including: receiving an intra- frequency cell re-selection indicator in combination with physical cell identity split information from a closed subscriber group cell or a macro cell, where the intra-frequency cell re-selection indicator is indicative of whether or not a mobile station is allowed to camp on a cell that is not ranked as best; and making an intra-frequency cell selection/re-selection decision based on the received intra-frequency cell re-selection indicator and the physical cell identity split information. | 05-17-2012 |
| 20120129537 | Method for handoff to a femtocell in a wireless communication system, and server apparatus for the same - A method handsoff a terminal to a femtocell in a wireless communication system. The method includes, upon generation of a request for handoff to the femtocell, selecting, by a second server, at least one femtocells located within a predetermined distance from a source base station as candidate femtocells for the handoff, according to a request of a first server which functions as a femtocell gateway, receiving, by the first server, a response message comprising information of the candidate femtocells from the second server, sending, by the first server, a message requesting measurement of a reverse signal strength of a terminal under the handoff to the candidate femtocells, determining, by the first server, a destination femtocell for the handoff among the candidate femtocells based on the measurement result reported from the candidate femtocells, and executing a handoff procedure to the destination femtocell from the source base station. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120129536 | Method And Apparatus For Interference Suppression In Heterogenous Networks - A method is provided a wireless system for providing an interference suppression zone in a portion of the macro cell coverage area bordering the small-cell coverage area for a small cell, but outside that small-cell coverage area. The transmission power of a UE located within the interference suppression zone is minimized to minimize the inter-cell interference to the small cells. The invention methodology further operates to enhance the redirection/redistribution methods of the art for UEs located in the interference suppression zone, further reducing macro to small cell interference. In further embodiments of the invention, methods are provided for determining the scope of an interference suppression zone and for determining proximity of an UE to the interference suppression zone. | 05-24-2012 |
| 20120214495 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING HANDOVER TO PREVENT FEMTOCELL INTERFERENCE - Provided are apparatus and method for controlling handover to prevent femtocell interference. The apparatus may include an event receiving module, a handover determining module, and an inter-frequency processing module. The event receiving module may be configured to receive a control message from user equipment. The handover determining module may be configured to analyze the received control message and determine whether the control message includes a request of inter-cell handover from a first cell base station of the first cell to a second cell base station of one of the second cells. The inter-frequency processing module may be configured to perform inter-frequency handover using an unshared frequency when the handover determining module determines that the control message includes the request of inter-cell handover. | 08-23-2012 |
| 20120190372 | RF CONSIDERATIONS FOR USER EQUIPMENT HANDOFF - A method for managing uplink signal quality at a radio node and at a macrocell and/or external cell, includes determining a first transmit power associated with a radio node of a small-cell radio access network and a second transmit power associated with a macrocell and/or an external cell. A desense value associated with an uplink of the radio node of the small-cell radio access network is provided, which enables balancing of a first signal to noise-plus-interference ratio associated with an uplink of the small-cell radio access network and a second signal to noise-plus-interference ratio associated with an uplink of the macrocell and/or external cell in relation to a downlink of the radio node, thereby managing uplink signal quality at the radio node of the small-cell radio access network and at the macrocell and/or external cell. | 07-26-2012 |
| 20110223920 | WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSIGNING PHYSICAL-LAYER CELL IDENTITIES OF BASE STATIONS IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - While dividing a limited number of physical-layer cell identities (PCIDs) into a group of PCIDs to be added to macro-cell base stations and another group of PCIDs added to femtocell base stations, a center machine associating with a femtocell base station that applies for PCID addition refers to a table storing therein area information of a plurality of macrocell base stations and femtocell base stations within a wireless communication system to thereby identify the area of a message-transmitted femtocell base station and PCIDs being presently used in this area, selects an unused PCID in this area, and assigns it to the PCID addition-requesting femtocell base station. With such arrangement, while maximally leveraging the limited number of PCIDs in the wireless communication system, PCID setup is automatically performed in such a way as to prevent the PCID from becoming the same as a PCID of its neighboring base station. | 09-15-2011 |
| 20120100861 | Network Element and Method of Communication Management in a Network - A network element for a communication network including a plurality of network elements is provided, wherein the network element includes an input interface adapted to receive an activity signal indicating that a status of a specific network element has changed, a determination unit adapted to determine a neighbour signal of the specific network element indicative for the neighbourhood relationship of the specific network element, and an output interface adapted to send a neighbour signal to the specific network element. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20120149381 | WIRELESS HANDOFFS BASED UPON ACTIVITY CORRELATION - A femtocell node exchanges user data with a wireless communication device. Subsequently, a macrocell node exchanges other user data with the wireless communication device. A handoff controller selects the femtocell node for a handoff from the macrocell node based on a correlation with the prior communications between the wireless communication device and the femtocell node. For example, the prior communications between the wireless communication device and the femtocell node may correlate in time, geography, and/or destination address with prior interrupted communications between the wireless communication device and the macrocell node. | 06-14-2012 |
