Method and apparatus for recommending real-time handover to a target cell in open-radio access network (O-RAN) environment

A method for providing real-time target cell recommendation for handover by a Radio access network (RAN) controller in open RAN (O-RAN) environment, the O-RAN environment has a virtualized network architecture having at least one RAN controller, the RAN controller is connected with a plurality of E2 nodes, the plurality of E2 nodes are connected with at least one user equipments (UEs) positioned in a serving cell, a cell covering a location for serving a UE, the serving cell is adjacent to a plurality of neighbour cells, the method comprising:

• executing a first handover process and a second handover process in parallel,
• wherein the first handover process is configured to enable checking, at the at least one UE, if triggering of handover is required,
• wherein the second handover process is configured to identify a target neighbour cell, from the plurality of neighbour cells, for handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to the target neighbour cell;
• and
• recommending the handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to the identified target neighbour cell based on the first handover process and the second handover process, wherein both the first handover process and the second handover process are triggered simultaneously.