Handover for aerial user equipment served by terrestrial networks

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a system comprising a processor, information from a device that identifies the device as an aerial user equipment, wherein the information allows for a determination that the device is airborne and thus distinguished from being a ground based user equipment;
• determining, by the system and based upon receiving a handover radio link failure report, that the aerial user equipment is engaged in a ping-pong handover event with terrestrial based network equipment located in a defined geographic area;
• and
• transmitting, by the system and based upon receiving the handover radio link failure report, an instruction to the aerial user equipment to generate a confirmation of the ping-pong handover event, wherein the instruction comprises a delay value representing a back off time for the aerial user equipment to refrain from gathering measurement data within the defined geographic area after generating the confirmation.

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

• receiving information from a device that identifies the device as an aerial user equipment, wherein the information allows for a determination that the device is airborne and thus distinguished from being a ground based user equipment;
• determining, based upon receiving a handover radio link failure report, that the aerial user equipment is engaged in a ping-pong handover event with terrestrial based network equipment configured to provide service to a defined geographic area;
• and
• transmitting, based upon receiving the handover radio link failure report, an instruction to the aerial user equipment to generate a confirmation of the ping-pong handover event, wherein the instruction comprises a back off time value applicable to prevent the aerial user equipment, after generating the confirmation, from gathering measurement data within the defined geographic area for an amount of time represented by the back off time value.