Establishing And Maintenance Of A Neighbour Relationship Between Access Nodes In A Wireless Communications Network

A method comprising:

• registering an access node of a plurality of access nodes with a control node of a wireless communications network;
• detecting at the access node other access nodes of said plurality in the network;
• reporting information to the control node about the access node, said information including identification of other access nodes of said plurality detected by said access node;
• and
• receiving a neighbour list from the control node containing a list of access nodes which are neighbouring access nodes based on said information;
• this step further comprises receiving an update of the list of access nodes which are neighbouring access nodes;
• sending a request to a subscriber station accessing the network to perform a measurement to detect an available cell in the network;
• receiving the measurement of the detected available cell from the subscriber station;
• comparing access nodes of the detected available cells with the neighbour list received from the control node;
• and reporting the detected available cell if it does not have an access node contained in the neighbour list.

A method of establishing a relationship between access nodes in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

• receiving a command at a subscriber station to perform a measurement of a cell of the network;
• detecting available cells in the network at the subscriber station;
• performing said measurement of one of the available cells at the subscriber station;
• and
• reporting said measurement to an access node of the net-work when the measurement is of a cell not contained in a neighbour cell list provided in the access node.

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memories including computer program code, the one or more memories and the computer program code configured, with the one or more processors, to cause the apparatus to perform:
• registering with a control node of a wireless communications network;
• detecting access nodes of a plurality of access nodes in the network;
• reporting information to the control node, said information including identification of access nodes of said plurality detected by said apparatus, to a control node controlling the apparatus;
• and
• receiving a neighbour list from the control node containing a list of access nodes which are neighbouring access nodes based on said information.

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memories including computer program code, the one or more memories and the computer program code configured, with the one or more processors, to cause the apparatus to perform:
• registering each access node of a plurality of access nodes of a wireless communications network;
• receiving information about each access node registered with the network, said information including identification of other access nodes of said plurality of access nodes detected by each said access node;
• storing said information about the access nodes;
• deriving neighbour relationships among the access nodes from said information and creating a neighbour list of the access nodes based on said information;
• and
• sending the neighbour list to said registering access node.

A subscriber station for accessing a wireless communications network, the subscriber station comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive a command to perform a measurement of a cell of the network;
• a detector configured to detect available cells;
• a measurement apparatus configured to perform said measurement on one of the available cells;
• and
• a transmitter configured to report said measurement to an access node of the network when the measurement is of a cell not contained in a neighbour cell list provided in the access node.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising code for performing:

• registering each access node of a plurality of access nodes with a control node of a wireless communications network;
• storing information in the control node about each said access node registered with the network, said information including identification of other access nodes of said plurality detected by each said access node;
• compiling a neighbour list at the control node for each said access node registering at the control node, wherein the list indicates which said registering access node is a neighbour of another said access node based on said information;
• and
• sending the neighbour list from the control node to said registering access node in the network.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium bearing computer program code embodied therein for use with a computer, the computer program code comprising code for performing:

• registering an access node of a plurality of access nodes with a control node of a wireless communications network;
• detecting at the access node other access nodes of said plurality in the network;
• reporting information to the control node about the access node, said information including identification of other access nodes of said plurality detected by said access node;
• and
• receiving a neighbour list from the control node containing a list of access nodes which are neighbouring access nodes based on said information.

A computer program product adapted to run on a processor in a subscriber station, wherein the computer program product is configured to control the subscriber station to perform the steps of:

• receiving a command to perform a measurement of a cell of the network;
• detecting available cells in the network;
• performing said measurement of one of the available cells;
• and
• reporting said measurement to an access node of the network when the measurement is of a cell not contained in a neighbour cell list provided in the access node.