Inbound handover for macrocell-to-femtocell call transfer

• US 9,414,273 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2012
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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:
  US13/570,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20140045505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,462 Days
• Field of Search: 455/434, 455/435.1, 455/435.2, 455/444, 455/445, 455/452.2, 455/456.1, 455/411, 370/252
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 user equipment, comprising:

a processor; and

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

prior to a scan of access point devices by the user equipment, receiving, from a data store for a macro access point device, femtocell data that comprises a scrambling code and timing data for the user equipment to define a time period during which the user equipment is authorized to access a femtocell device,

augmenting neighbor list data with at least a portion of the femtocell data to generate augmented neighbor list data, wherein the neighbor list data is received from the macro access point device that serves the user equipment, and wherein the neighbor list data comprises macro cell data related to macro cell devices that are within a defined distance from the macro access point device, and

employing the augmented neighbor list data to facilitate the scan, wherein based on a result of the scan, a first coupling between the user equipment and the macro access point device is transferred to a second coupling between the user equipment and the femtocell device within the time period defined by the timing data for the user equipment that is received from the data store for the macro access point device.

2. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

directing, to the macro access point device, request data indicative of a request for the neighbor list data during a communication session being performed by the user equipment.

3. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data comprises location data associated with the femtocell device.

4. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a set of the femtocell devices that includes the femtocell device and satisfies a distance criterion associated with a geographical location of the user equipment, wherein the augmenting comprises augmenting the neighbor list data with at least the portion of the femtocell data that is related to the set of the femtocell devices.

5. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the defined distance is a first defined distance and the femtocell data comprises identifier data indicative of respective sets of macro access point devices located within a second defined distance from the femtocell device.

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

based on distance data associated with the femtocell device, determining a set of the femtocell devices associated with the femtocell device, wherein the augmenting comprises augmenting the neighbor list data with at least the portion of the femtocell data that is related to the set of the femtocell devices.

7. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data comprises an identifier associated with the femtocell device.

8. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data comprises a carrier frequency associated with the femtocell device.

9. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

storing the femtocell data in response to determining that identifier data associated with the user equipment has been added to an access control data structure associated with the femtocell device.

10. The user equipment of claim 1, wherein at least the portion of the femtocell data is at least a first portion of the femtocell data, the femtocell device is a femto access point device, and wherein the operations further comprise:

prohibiting scanning for another femtocell device that is associated with at least a second portion of the femtocell data, wherein the other femtocell device does not satisfy a distance criterion.

11. A method, comprising:

determining, by a user equipment comprising a processor, whether a base station device serving the user equipment is to be changed during an on-going communication session;

in response to determining that the base station device serving the user equipment is to be changed during the on-going communication session, receiving, by the user equipment, neighbor list data from a network device;

augmenting, by the user equipment, the neighbor list data with femtocell data stored by a data store of the user equipment, wherein the femtocell data is received from a data store of the base station device and comprises a scrambling code and timing data for the user equipment that specifies an interval of time during which the user equipment is authorized to access a femto access point device; and

in response to the augmenting and based on the neighbor list data, facilitating, by the user equipment, a scan to detect the femto access point device during the interval of time specified by the timing data for the user equipment.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the facilitating includes facilitating the scan based on a carrier frequency specified within the femtocell data.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the augmenting comprises augmenting the neighbor list data based on location data indicative of a geographical location of the user equipment.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the augmenting comprises augmenting the neighbor list data based on identifier data associated with the femto access point device.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

in response to detecting the femto access point device, facilitating, by the user equipment, a transfer of the on-going communication session from the base station device to the femto access point device.

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

prior to a scan of access point devices by user equipment, customizing neighbor list data for the user equipment, including adding, to the neighbor list data, femtocell data that comprises a scrambling code and timing data for the user equipment to establish a time interval during which the user equipment is authorized to access a femto access point device, wherein the femtocell data is stored within a data store of a serving access point device; and

based on the neighbor list data, facilitating the scan, wherein a result of the scan initiates a transfer from a first coupling between the user equipment and the serving access point device to a second coupling between the user equipment and the femto access point device during the time interval established by the timing data for the user equipment.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the customizing includes customizing the neighbor list data based on location data representing a geographical location of the user equipment.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the customizing includes customizing the neighbor list data based on identifier data associated with the serving access point device.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to determining that identifier data associated with the user equipment has been added to an access control data structure associated with the femto access point device, storing a portion of the femtocell data within the data store.