Inbound handover for macrocell-to-femtocell call transfer

• US 10,390,272 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Henry, Paul Shala, Iannone, Patrick P., Kim, Byoung-Jo J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Khawar
• Application Number:
  US15/200,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20160316406A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,145 Days
• Field of Search: 455434, 4554351, 4554352, 455444, 455445, 4554522, 4554561
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0061 of neighbour cell information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00835 Determination of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/04 Reselecting a cell layer in multi-layered cells
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0466 the resource being a scrambling code
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

A system and methodology that facilitates macrocell-to-femtocell handovers during an on-going communication session by augmenting a neighbor list with femtocell data is provided. Moreover, the femtocell data associated with a set of femtocells that the a user equipment (UE) is authorized to access is added to a neighbor list. When a handover is initiated, the femtocell data is utilized to facilitate scanning of a radio environment of the user equipment to detect a target cell site for the handover. In one aspect, location data and/or serving cell data associated with the set of femtocells is utilized to limit the number of femtocells that are added to the neighbor list.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving, from a data store of a macro cell device via a wireless communication channel, femtocell data that comprises a scrambling code and timing data for a user equipment to define a time period during which the user equipment is authorized to access a femtocell device;

generating neighbor list data related to the macro cell device that satisfy a criterion associated with distance data;

generating augmented neighbor list data by augmenting the neighbor list data with the femtocell data that comprises the scrambling code and the timing data that defines the time period during which the user equipment is authorized to access the femtocell device, wherein the generating the augmented neighbor list data comprises augmenting macrocell data of the neighbor list data with the femtocell data; and

transferring, within the time period defined by the augmented neighbor list data, a first coupling between the user equipment and the system to a second coupling between the user equipment and the femtocell device based on the augmented neighbor list data that comprises the scrambling code and the timing data that defines the time period during which the user equipment is authorized to access the femtocell device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the generating the augmented neighbor list data comprises augmenting a portion of the neighbor list data with a frequency range included in the femtocell data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the transferring comprises transferring the first coupling to the second coupling based on location data indicative of a location for the femtocell device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the transferring comprises transferring the first coupling to the second coupling based on frequency data indicative of a carrier frequency associated with the femtocell device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from the user equipment, request data indicative of a request for the neighbor list data during a communication session being performed by the user equipment.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing the femtocell data in response to determining that identifier data, indicative of an identifier for the user equipment, is added to a data structure associated with the femtocell device.

7. A method, comprising:

determining, by a network device comprising a processor, femtocell data that comprises a scrambling code and timing data for a mobile device to define a time period during which the mobile device is authorized to access a femtocell device, comprising receiving the femtocell data from a group of network devices via a wireless communication channel;

generating, by the network device, neighbor group data, related to the group of network devices that are within a defined distance from the network device;

augmenting the neighbor group data with the femtocell data, that comprises the scrambling code and the timing data that defines the time period during which the mobile device is authorized to access the femtocell device, to generate augmented neighbor group data, wherein the augmenting the neighbor group data comprises augmenting macrocell data of the neighbor group data with the femtocell data; and

transmitting, by the network device, the augmented neighbor group data, that comprises the scrambling code to the mobile device to facilitate transferring, within the time period defined by the augmented neighbor group data, a first coupling between the mobile device and the network device to a second coupling between the mobile device and the femtocell device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining the femtocell data comprises determining the femtocell data in response to receiving request data indicative of a request for the neighbor group data.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the augmenting comprises augmenting a previously generated version of the neighbor group data with the femtocell data.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein augmenting comprises filtering the neighbor group data based on location data indicative of a geographic location associated with the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the augmenting comprises generating the augmented neighbor group data based on frequency data indicative of a carrier frequency associated with the femtocell device.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing, by the network device, the femtocell data in response to determining that identifier data, indicative of an identifier for the mobile device, is added to a data structure associated with the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, by the network device from the mobile device, request data indicative of a request for the neighbor group data during a communication session being performed by the mobile device.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

receiving, from a network device, neighbor list data indicative of network devices within a defined distance from a user equipment;

receiving, from a base station device via wireless communication, femtocell data that comprises a scrambling code and timing data for the user equipment that specifies a time period during which the user equipment is authorized to access a femto access point device;

augmenting the neighbor list data with the femtocell data that comprises the scrambling code and the timing data that specifies the time period during which the user equipment is authorized to access the femto access point device to generate augmented neighbor list data, wherein the augmenting the neighbor list data comprises augmenting macrocell data of the neighbor list data with the femtocell data; and

transferring, within the time period defined by the augmented neighbor list data and based on the scrambling code, a first coupling between the user equipment and the base station device to a second coupling between the user equipment and the femto access point device.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the receiving the neighbor list data comprises receiving the neighbor list data prior to a scan of femto access point devices by the user equipment.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the augmenting comprises augmenting the neighbor list data based on identifier data indicative of an identifier for the femto access point device.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the transferring comprises transferring the first coupling to the second coupling based on a first geographic location associated with the user equipment and second geographic location associated with the femto access point device.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting, to the network device during a communication session associated with the user equipment, request data indicative of a request for the neighbor list data.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

scanning, based on the neighbor list data, frequencies to detect the femto access point device.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the augmenting comprises generating the augmented neighbor list data based on frequency data indicative of a carrier frequency associated with the femto access point device.