Reverse link other cell interference locator and handoff trigger for wireless network

Abstract

A method/apparatus identifies other cell interference in a wireless network and determines whether a handoff to an affected base station should occur. In one implementation, a base station of a CDMA-based wireless network continuously monitors reverse link interference levels to detect an increased interference condition, and initiates a CDMA mobile identifying sequence to determine whether the interfering signal source is a proximate mobile being served by a neighboring base station of the network. The affected base station obtains a list of long code masks for mobiles being served by neighboring base stations, and instructs at least one receiver unit to sequentially despread received signals using each of the listed long code masks. When the receiver unit detects a signal transmitted by a non-served mobile, the base station analyzes relative reverse link signal strength for the non-served mobile, e.g., using Ec/Io measurements, to determine whether the non-served mobile is likely be the source of interference. Having determined that a nearby CDMA mobile is the source of interference, the affected base station may initiate one of a number of possible actions, including triggering a handoff to the affected base station so that the affected base station could control the transmit power level of the mobile, requesting that the interfering mobile be switched to a different frequency carrier or dropped, or merely recording the interference condition.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.