Hand-out and hand-in support for legacy mobiles serviced by a femtocell attached to an IMS network

A method for handing off a mobile device from a femtocell to a mobile switching center, the method comprising;

• responsive to the mobile device identifying that signal strength for base station is higher than signal strength for femtocell, sending, from the mobile device a first handoff request to the femtocell;
• responsive to receiving the first handoff request from the mobile device, encapsulating, by the femtocell, information from the handoff request into a handoff request message, and sending the handoff request message to a convergence server;
• responsive to receiving the handoff request message, sending to a media server, by the convergence server, a request to assign a new circuit identification;
• responsive to receiving the request to assign the new circuit identification, assigning, by the media server the new circuit identification, and conforming the convergence server of new circuit identification;
• responsive to receiving the new circuit identification, sending, by the convergence server, routing information for the mobile device to a target mobile switching center;
• responsive to receiving routing information for the mobile device, sending, by the target mobile switching center, a second handoff request to a target radio network controller;
• responsive to receiving a second handoff request from the target mobile, determining, by the switching center, whether a base station can support the mobile device by obtains information from the base station regarding capacity and availability of the base station;
• responsive to determining that the base station can support the mobile device, sending, by the target radio network controller, an acknowledgment message to the target mobile switching center;
• responsive to receiving the acknowledgment message at the target mobile switching center, relaying, by the target mobile switching center, the acknowledgment message to the convergence server;
• responsive to receiving the acknowledgment message at the convergence server, sending, by the convergence server, a handoff command to the femtocell;
• responsive to receiving the handoff command at the femtocell, sending by the femtocell, a response to the convergence server that a handoff has commenced;
• initiating, by the convergence server, a dummy traffic channel between the target mobile switching and the target radio network controller;
• responsive to establishing a traffic channel, sending, by the target radio network controller, a handoff complete message to the target mobile switching center;
• responsive to receiving the handoff complete message from the target radio network controller, sending, by the target mobile switching center, a ready-for-handoff message to the convergence server;
• responsive to receiving the ready-for-handoff message, sending, by the convergence server, and update message to the media server informing the media server to bind a new circuit identification to the dummy traffic channel;
• responsive to receiving the update message, binding, by the media server, the new circuit identification, and notifying the convergence server that the new circuit identification is bound;
• responsive to receiving notification that the new circuit identification is bound, sending, by the convergence server, a clear command to the femtocell;
• and
• responsive to receiving the information, terminating, by the femtocell, a communication path between the mobile device and the femtocell.