System and methods for detecting un-responsive cells over LTE and 5G networks

A radio communication control device, comprising:

• a processing system including a processor;
• and
• a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
• detecting a particular cell of radio communication system as being un-responsive, wherein the detecting is based on a received signature from the particular cell;
• confirming the particular cell as being un-responsive based on network data produced responsive to stimulus signals provided to the network;
• and
• responsive to a confirmation that the particular cell is un-responsive, communicating a signal from the radio communication control device to the particular cell, the particular cell responsive to the signal to restart the particular cell.

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

• collecting network data for a plurality of cells of a cellular communication network;
• identifying a particular cell of the plurality of cells is in an un-responsive state, wherein the identifying is based on the network data;
• selecting a plurality of user equipment (UE) devices as UE test devices;
• forcing cell reselection attempts, handover attempts, or both, by the UE test devices to communicate with the particular cell;
• based on failure of the cell reselection attempts or failure of the handover attempts, confirming the particular cell is in the un-responsive state;
• and
• communicating a restart signal from the processing system to cause the particular cell to restart to a responsive state.