Patent ID: 8259666
Filing Date: 2012-09-04
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: storing a preferred roaming list (PRL) of a carrier in a mobile station operable through base stations of a macro wireless communication network operated by the carrier and through a plurality of customer premises femto cells, the PRL including one or more entries providing information for use in searching for and selecting a femto cell base transceiver system (BTS) and one or more entries providing information for use in searching for and selecting a macro network base station, in a network discovery operation, wherein: upon initiating network discovery, searching for a system with which to register the mobile station based on the stored PRL, the search including searching for the system identification information on the primary frequency channel; and initiating a procedure to register the mobile station with one of the femto cell BTSs, responsive to the search detecting the system identification information on the primary frequency channel.