UNIQUELY IDENTIFYING TARGET FEMTOCELL TO FACILITATE ACTIVE HAND-IN

• Main Authors: SOLIMAN, SAMIR, RADULESCU, ANDREIAGOS, SINGH, DAMANJIT, CHEN, JEN, MEI, DAS, SOUMYA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 11.06.2014
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

A method for macrocell-to-femtocell hand-in includes: communicating a non-directed proximity request message from a femto-proxy system over an out-of-band (OOB) channel, the proximity request message configured to be received by any of a plurality of access terminals when in proximity to the femto-proxy system, the femto-proxy system comprising an OOB radio and a femtocell communicatively coupled with a core network element; receiving a proximity response message over the OOB link from an access terminal of the plurality of access terminals in response to the proximity request message, the proximity response message indicating that the access terminal is in proximity to the femto-proxy system; communicating a presence indication from the femtocell to a core network element indicating proximity of the access terminal to the femtocell; and facilitating active hand-in of the access terminal from a source macrocell of a macro network to the femtocell.