Systems and methods for detecting non-terrestrial cells and managing physical cell identity collision and neighboring list integrity in a heterogeneous terrestrial and satellite wireless communication networks

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method including receiving first neighbor cell information from a first user equipment (UE) operating in a first terrestrial service cell, where the first neighbor cell information includes a first physical cell identification (PCI) of a first neighbor cell and a cell type indicator detected by the first user equipment. The method further includes generating a database that cross-references the first PCI, the cell type indicator and a location of the first UE and analyzing a correlation among the first PCI, the cell type indicator and the location of the first UE to identify anomalies indicative of a non-terrestrial neighbor cell. No handover or neighbor list updates may take place for the non-terrestrial neighbor cell. Other embodiments are disclosed.