Systems and methods for determining access node candidates for handover of wireless devices

A system for determining access node candidates for handover of wireless devices in a wireless network, the system comprising a controller node:

• a first access node coupled to the controller node, configured to:
• remove from a first access node neighbor relation table (NRT) one or more second access nodes for which an NRT removal condition is satisfied;
• add one or more of the removed second access nodes to a blacklist stored by the first access node or by the controller node in communication with the first access node, wherein blacklisted second access nodes are restricted from addition to the first access node NRT by an automatic neighbor relation (ANR) protocol;
• upon detection of a reference signal from the one or more of the removed second access nodes meeting a threshold, compare current and historical values for a signal information and network characteristics with threshold values for each of the blacklisted second access nodes, the signal information comprising a signal level or interference of each of the blacklisted second access nodes;
• identify a specific combination of network characteristics of a blacklisted second access node for removal from the blacklist, wherein the specific combination of network characteristics comprises:
• a utilization indicator of the blacklisted second access node being higher than a utilization threshold, a number of active radio resource connections (RRC) of the blacklisted second access node being lower than a connectivity threshold, and an average data volume per RRC connection of the blacklisted second access node being below a capacity threshold;
• and
• remove the blacklisted second access node from the blacklist.