INBOUND HANDOVER FOR MACROCELL-TO-FEMTOCELL CALL TRANSFER

• US 20140045505A1
• Filed: 08/08/2012
• Published: 02/13/2014
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 9,414,273 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/444
• 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 memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the computer-executable instructions to at least;

prior to an inbound handover of a user equipment from a macrocell to a femtocell, determine femtocell data associated with a set of femtocells that the user equipment is authorized to access,

augment a neighbor list with at least a portion of the femtocell data, wherein the neighbor list includes macrocell data related to a set of macrocells that are within a predefined distance from a macro base station serving the user equipment, and

direct the augmented neighbor list to the user equipment to facilitate the inbound handover.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to receive, from the user equipment, a request for the neighbor list during a communication session being performed by the user equipment.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data includes location data associated with the set of femtocells.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to:

determine a subset of the set of femtocells that satisfy a distance criterion associated with a location of the user equipment; and

augment the neighbor list with at least the portion of the femtocell data that is related to the subset of the set of femtocells.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the predefined distance is a first predefined distance and the femtocell data includes identifier data indicative of respective sets of macro access points located within a second predefined distance from the set of femtocells.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to:

based in part on the identifier data, determine a subset of the set of femtocells associated with a macro access point that is serving the user equipment; and

augment the neighbor list with at least the portion of the femtocell data that is related to the subset of the set of femtocells.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data includes a set of respective identifiers associated with the set of femtocells.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data includes a set of respective scrambling codes associated with the set of femtocells.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the femtocell data includes a set of respective carrier frequencies associated with the set of femtocells.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least the portion of the femtocell data is at least a first portion of the femtocell data and wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to receive at least a second portion of the femtocell data, in response to identifier data associated with the user equipment being added to an access control list associated with a femtocell of the set of femtocells.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least the portion of the femtocell data is at least a first portion of the femtocell data and wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the computer-executable instructions to prohibit a transmission of at least a second portion of the femtocell data that is associated with a subset of the set of femtocells that do not satisfy a distance criterion.

12. A method, comprising:

determining, by a system comprising a processor, that a handover is to be initiated to transfer a communication session associated with a user equipment from a macro access point to a femto access point;

receiving, by the system, a neighbor list that is customized for the user equipment, wherein the neighbor list includes femtocell data associated with a set of femtocells that the user equipment is authorized to access; and

detecting, by the system, the femto access point based in part on the neighbor list.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the detecting includes scanning a set of carrier frequencies specified within the femtocell data.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving includes receiving the neighbor list that is customized based in part on a location of the user equipment.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving includes receiving the neighbor list that is customized based in part on identifier data associated with the macro access point.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

in response to the detecting, facilitating, by the system, a transfer of the communication session from the macro access point to the femto access point.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

customizing a neighbor list for a user equipment, including adding, to the neighbor list, femtocell data associated with a set of femtocells that the user equipment is authorized to access; and

directing the customized neighbor list to the user equipment to facilitate an inbound handover from a macro access point to a femto access point.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the customizing includes customizing the neighbor list based in part on a location of the user equipment.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the customizing includes customizing the neighbor list based in part on identifier data associated with an access point serving the user equipment.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving at least a portion of the femtocell data, in response to identifier data associated with the user equipment being added to an access control list associated with a femtocell of the set of femtocells.