Method of identification of a femtocell base station as a handover target, and apparatus therefor

Abstract

A method is provided of identifying which one of a plurality of femtocell base stations neighboring a first femtocell base station is to be the target for handover of a call connection with a user terminal from the first base station. The neighbor femtocell base stations use the same primary scrambling code as each other. The femtocell base stations use code-division multiple access, CDMA. Each of the neighbor femtocell base stations transmits a respective broadcast signal that include timing information such that each neighbor femtocell base station transmits a broadcast signal having different timing information to that of the other neighbor femtocell base stations. The user terminal receives broadcast signals, determines the timing information of at least one of the received broadcast signals and reports the timing information to the first femtocell base station. The first femtocell base station identifies the target femtocell base station for handover from the timing information.