Method and apparatus for controlling a small cell on or off procedure for capacity enhancement

A method for controlling a small cell off procedure supported by a Source Serving Cell (SSC), the method comprising:

• transmitting, by the SSC to a Macro Small Cell (MSC), a cell indication message including a cell state change indication parameter indicating whether the SSC is to be off and a cell off timer parameter indicating a time duration for a cell off process;
• receiving, by the SSC from the MSC, a cell off request message in order to accommodate an user equipment (UE) serviced from the SSC based on the cell state change indication parameter;
• and
• transmitting, by the SSC to the MSC, an aggregated UE context transfer message requesting to perform a radio resource control (RRC) connection switching from the SSC to the MSC during a time duration indicated by the cell off timer parameter.

A Macro Serving Cell (MSC) for controlling a small cell off procedure, the MSC comprising:

• a receiver;
• a transmitter;
• and
• a processor for controlling the small cell off procedure,
• wherein the processor is configured to:
• receive, from a Source Small Cell (SSC), a cell indication message including a cell state change indication parameter indicating whether the SSC is to be off and a cell off timer parameter indicating a time duration for a cell off process;
• transmit, to the SSC, a cell off request message in order to accommodate an user equipment (UE) serviced from the SSC based on the cell state change indication parameter;
• and
• receive, from the SSC, an aggregated UE context transfer message requesting to perform a radio resource control (RRC) connection switching from the SSC to the MSC during a time duration indicated by the cell off timer parameter.