Handover in a shared radio access network environment using subscriber-dependent neighbor cell lists

A radio access network comprising a serving radio network control node and a drift radio network control node, wherein the serving radio network control node determines that a target cell controlled by the drift radio network control node should be prepared for handover with respect to a user equipment unit, the target cell being neighbored by a set of neighboring cells, the set of neighboring cells including a first subset of neighboring cells and a second subset of neighboring cells, a handover involving the user equipment unit being permitted for a cell of the first subset but not for a cell of the second subset;

• characterized in that:
• the serving radio network control node transmits to the user equipment unit a message including a filtered list of cells, the filtered list of cells including the first subset but not the second subset, the filtered list of cells comprising cells for whose channels the user equipment unit is to perform measurements.

A radio network control node capable of acting as a serving radio network control node and capable of communicating with a drift radio network control node, the radio network control node, when having knowledge that a target cell controlled by the drift radio network control node is to be prepared for handover with respect to a user equipment unit and having knowledge of a set of neighboring cells which neighbor the target cell, being arranged for preparing and transmitting to the user equipment unit a message including a filtered list of cells, the filtered list including a first subset of neighboring cells for which the handover involving the user equipment unit is permitted but not including a second subset of neighboring cells for which the handover involving the user equipment unit is not permitted, the filtered list of cells comprising cells for whose channels the user equipment unit is to perform measurements.