Method and apparatus for supporting handover in heterogeneous network

A terminal apparatus for supporting a handover in a heterogeneous network, the terminal apparatus comprising:

• a channel estimator for measuring received signal strength from a target small base station to estimate a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR);
• and
• a controller for, when the SNR of the target small base station that considers a biased value for range expansion is greater than an SNR of a serving macro base station, determining whether an SNR of the target small base station that does not consider the biased value for the range expansion is equal to or less than a threshold, and when the SNR of the target small base station that does not consider the biased value for the range expansion is equal to or less than the threshold, for transmitting indication information, informing that a low SNR is expected when the terminal performs a handover to the target small base station, to the serving macro base station.

A macro base station apparatus for supporting a handover in a heterogeneous network, the macro base station apparatus comprising:

• a controller for, when a terminal performs a handover to a target small base station, receiving indication information informing that a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is expected from the terminal, when the terminal performs a handover to the target small base station, for transmitting at least one of information regarding the terminal for which the low SNR is expected and muting subframe information to the target small base station, and for receiving resource allocation information for the terminal for which the low SNR is expected from the target small base station,
• wherein the controller transmits at least one of the muting subframe information, a handover point, resource allocation information for the terminal, and current subframe information to the terminal.