Systems and methods for user equipment handover preparation efficiency optimization

A wireless communication base station system, the system comprising:

• at least one controller comprising one or more processing units to execute one or more functions of a wireless communication base station, wherein the wireless communication base station is configured to communicate with one or more user equipment (UE) over one or both of uplink (UL) radio frequency (RF) signals and downlink (DL) RF signals, the one or more processing units to further execute operations comprising:
• receive measurement data from a first UE of the one or more UE, the measurement data comprising one or more measurements of RF signals of one or more neighboring base stations;
• identify a first target base station of the one or more neighboring base stations to receive a UE handover based at least on the measurement data;
• determine an availability of the first target base station to receive the UE handover based on an access mode of the first target base station as indicated by barred neighbor data, wherein the barred neighbor data indicates the access mode of one or more access nodes as compiled based on received handover response messages from the first target base station comprising one or more rejections of prior UE handover request, wherein the received handover response messages include a code indicating the access mode of the first target base station;
• and
• transmit a handover request message to the first target base station in response to an indication of the access mode from the barred neighbor data that the first target base station is available to receive the UE handover.

A method for user equipment (UE) handover preparation optimization, the method comprising:

• identifying a first target access node to receive a UE handover based at least on measurement data received from a UE;
• determining an availability of the first target access node to receive the UE handover based on an access mode of the first target access node as indicated by barred neighbor data, wherein the barred neighbor data indicates the access mode of one or more access nodes as compiled based on receiving handover response messages from the first target access node comprising one or more rejections of prior UE handover request, wherein the received handover response messages include a code indicating the access mode of the first target access node;
• transmitting a handover request message to the first target access node in response to an indication of the access mode from the barred neighbor data that the first target access node is available to receive the UE handover;
• and
• identifying a second target access node to receive the user equipment (UE) handover based on the measurement data, in response to an indication of the access mode from the barred neighbor data that the first target access node is in a barred access mode not available to receive the UE handover.