Femtocell base station, and a method of selecting carrier frequency band of a femtocell base station
AssigneeAlcatel Lucent
InventorsEric B. Jul, Holger Claussen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is provided of selecting carrier frequency band of a femtocell base station that provides a femtocell and resides within a macrocell provided by a macrocell base station. The method comprises: the femtocell base station operating at the carrier frequency band of the macrocell, detecting that a user terminal connected to the macrocell base station at an carrier frequency band of the macrocell is in or close to the femtocell, and the femtocell base station switching its carrier frequency band to one not allocated to the macrocell.
Claims11
A method of selecting carrier frequency band of a femtocell base station that provides a femtocell and resides within a macrocell provided by a macrocell base station, the method comprising:
- the femtocell base station operating at a carrier frequency band of the macrocell comprising detecting that a first user terminal is in or close to the femtocell, determining that said first user terminal is connectable to the femtocell base station and so connecting said first user terminal to the femtocell base station using the carrier frequency band allocated to the macrocell;
- detecting that a second user terminal connected to the macrocell base station at the carrier frequency band of the macrocell is in or close to the femtocell;
- wherein the femtocell base station switches its carrier frequency band to one not allocated to the macrocell upon determining that the second user terminal is not connectable to the femtocell base station, in which said first user terminal is handed over to the macrocell base station at the carrier frequency band of the macrocell, whereupon the femtocell base station is switched to the frequency band not allocated to the macrocell and then said first user terminal is handed over to the femtocell base station.
A femtocell base station comprising a carrier frequency band selector configured to select carrier frequency bands,
- the femtocell base station being configured to operate initially at a carrier frequency band of the macrocell in which said operating initially at the carrier frequency band of the macrocell comprises a detector detecting that a first user terminal is in or close to the femtocell, a processor determining that another user terminal is connectable to the femtocell base station and the processor effecting connection of said another user terminal to the femtocell base station at the carrier frequency band allocated to the macrocell;
- the femtocell base station further comprises the detector configured to detect that a second user terminal connected to the macrocell base station at the carrier frequency band of the macrocell is in or close to the femtocell;
- wherein:
- the selector being configured to switch the carrier frequency band of femtocell base station to one not allocated to the macrocell;
- the femtocell base station comprising a processor configured to determine that the second user terminal is not connectable to the femtocell base station;
- the selector being configured to perform said switch of the carrier frequency dependent upon the determination that the second user terminal is not connectable to the femtocell base station, where upon said first user terminal is handed over to the macrocell base station at the carrier frequency band of the macrocell, whereupon the femtocell base station is switched to the frequency band not allocated to the macrocell and then said first user terminal is handed over to the femtocell base station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.