Patent Publication Number: US-2015079989-A1

Title: Apparatus and methods of cell reselection when camping on a small coverage cell

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. §119 
     The present application for Patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/879,606 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CELL RESELECTION WHEN CAMPING ON A SMALL COVERAGE CELL” filed Sep. 18, 2013, and assigned to the assignee hereof and hereby expressly incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The present disclosure relates to wireless communication, and more specifically, to aspects of search and measurement scheduling in a cell reselection procedure executed a user equipment (UE) when camping on a small cell. 
     Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple UEs by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and Long Term Evolution (LTE), which uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) on the downlink (DL), single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. 
     Further, to supplement conventional wireless network base stations, referred to as macro base stations or macro cells, a network operator may deploy or allow users to deploy additional base stations to provide more robust wireless coverage to UEs. For example, wireless relay stations and small-coverage or closed subscriber group (CSG) base stations or cells (commonly referred to as access point base stations, Home NodeBs, femto access points, femto cells, or pico cells) may be deployed for incremental capacity growth, richer user experience, and in-building coverage. Typically, such small-coverage base stations are connected to the Internet and the network of the mobile network operator via a digital subscriber line (DSL) router or cable modem. 
     Additionally, in UMTS, the user equipment (UE) shall regularly search for a better cell to camp on according to the cell reselection criterion provided by the network, for example, as defined by 3GPP Technical Specification TS 25.304, “User Equipment (UE) procedures in idle mode and procedures for cells reselection in connected mode,” hereby incorporated by reference herein. This mechanism is used to ensure an acceptable quality of the camping cell, and therefore to achieve a desired call setup performance. A very reactive cell reselection mechanism can guarantee an adequate quality of the camping cell, however, this gain is achieved at the expense of stand-by time, which is decreased by frequent reselections. 
     Moreover, while the standards define the cell reselection criteria and some rules for performing a cell reselection evaluation when camping on the small coverage base station, the implementation of small coverage cell search and measurement scheduling in a cell reselection procedure may include many searches and measurements that adversely affect UE standby time and user experience. 
     Thus, improvements in performing a cell reselection evaluation when camping on the small coverage base station are desired. 
     SUMMARY 
     The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. 
     In accordance with an aspect, methods and apparatus for cell reselection when camped on a small cell comprises determining, by a user equipment (UE), whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on the small cell communicating with the UE in a serving frequency and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT). Further, the methods and apparatus include performing a measurement of a signal transmitted by the small cell in response to determining whether the cell reselection evaluation should be performed. Moreover, the methods and apparatus include determining that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal of the small cell falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. Additionally, the methods and apparatus include performing a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell falling below the measurement triggering threshold. Further, the methods and apparatus include ranking the small cell relative to the one or more other cells based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal transmitted by the one or more other cells. Moreover, the methods and apparatus include remaining camped on the small cell when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells. 
     Further aspects provide a computer program product for cell reselection when camped on a small cell comprising a computer-readable medium includes at least one instruction for determining, by a user equipment (UE), whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on the small cell communicating with the UE in a serving frequency and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT). Further, the computer program product further comprises at least one instruction for performing a measurement of a signal transmitted by the small cell in response to determining whether the cell reselection evaluation should be performed. Moreover, the computer program product further comprises at least one instruction for determining that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal of the small cell falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. Additionally, the computer program product further comprises at least one instruction for performing a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell falling below the measurement triggering threshold. Further, the computer program product further comprises at least one instruction for ranking the small cell relative to the one or more other cells based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal transmitted by the one or more other cells. Moreover, the computer program product further comprises at least one instruction for remaining camped on the small cell when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells. 
     Additional aspects provide an apparatus for communication comprises means for determining whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on the small cell communicating with the UE in a serving frequency and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT). The apparatus further comprises means for performing a measurement of a signal transmitted by the small cell in response to determining whether the cell reselection evaluation should be performed. Moreover, the apparatus comprises means for determining that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal of the small cell falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. Additionally, the apparatus comprises means for performing a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell falling below the measurement triggering threshold. Further, the apparatus comprises means for ranking the small cell relative to the one or more other cells based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal transmitted by the one or more other cells. Moreover, the apparatus comprises means for remaining camped on the small cell when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells. 
     In an additional aspect, an apparatus for communication comprises a memory storing executable instructions and a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to execute the instructions to determine, by a user equipment (UE), whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on the small cell communicating with the UE in a serving frequency and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT). The processor is further configured to perform a measurement of a signal transmitted by the small cell in response to determining whether the cell reselection evaluation should be performed. Moreover, the methods and apparatus include determining that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal of the small cell falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. Additionally, the processor is configured to perform a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell falling below the measurement triggering threshold. Further, the processor is configured to rank the small cell relative to the one or more other cells based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal transmitted by the one or more other cells. Moreover, the processor is configured to remain camped on the small cell when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells. 
     To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The disclosed aspects will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, provided to illustrate and not to limit the disclosed aspects, wherein like designations denote like elements, and in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an aspect of a system including a UE having a communication manager component as described herein; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of an aspect of the communication manager component of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart of an aspect of a method that may be executed by the UE and/or communication manager component of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart of an aspect of a method that may be executed by the UE and/or communication manager component of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram of an example hardware implementation for an apparatus employing a processing system configured to perform the functions described herein; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a telecommunications system in which a UE configured according to the present aspects may operate; 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an access network in which a UE configured according to the present aspects may operate; 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communication system including deployment of small coverage cells within a network environment; 
         FIG. 9  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a Node B in communication with a UE, configured as describe herein, in a telecommunications system; and 
         FIG. 10  illustrates a system for cell reselection when camped on a small cell in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, e.g., according to  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Various aspects are now described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of one or more aspects. It may be understood, however, that the present aspects may be practiced without these specific details. 
     According to the present apparatus and methods, a user equipment (UE) that is camped on a small coverage cell and triggered to perform a cell reselection evaluation is configured to avoid making cell measurements, even when a quality of the small coverage cell is below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold of one more networks, based on determining that the small coverage cell is the best ranked cell in a serving frequency of the small coverage cell. In other words, although the quality of the small coverage cell is below one or more cell reselection measurement triggering thresholds, the UE will not perform certain measurements and searches, or reselect to a cell, when the small coverage cell is the best ranked cell on its serving frequency. Thus, even in the presence of strong cell candidates for reselection, e.g., cells having high received signal strengths at the UE, the present apparatus and methods may enable the UE to remain camped on the small coverage cell, and may enable avoiding unnecessary cell measurements and searches. 
     As a result, the present apparatus and methods may enable the UE to save power and processing resources, and thereby improve standby time and improve the user experience. 
     The term “small cell” (or “small coverage cell”), as used herein, may refer to an access point or to a corresponding coverage area of the access point, where the access point in this case has a relatively low transmit power or relatively small coverage as compared to, for example, the transmit power or coverage area of a macro network access point or macro cell. For instance, a macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area, such as, but not limited to, several kilometers in radius. In contrast, a small cell may cover a relatively small geographic area, such as, but not limited to, a home, a building, or a floor of a building. As such, a small cell may include, but is not limited to, an apparatus such as a base station (BS), an access point, a femto node, a femtocell, a pico node, a micro node, a Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), home Node B (HNB) or home evolved Node B (HeNB). Therefore, the term “small cell,” as used herein, refers to a relatively low transmit power and/or a relatively small coverage area cell as compared to a macro cell. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a wireless communication system  10  in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. Wireless network system  10  may include one or more cells, for example, one or more evolved NodeBs (eNodeBs) and/or network entities. For example, the one or more cells may include, small cell  16 , intra-frequency cell  18 , an inter-frequency cell  20 , and/or an inter-RAT cell  22 . In these aspects, small coverage cell  16 , intra-frequency cell  18 , inter-frequency cell  20 , and inter-RAT cell  22 , each may operate according to any radio access technology (RAT) standard, which may be the same RAT standard or different RAT standards for each of the respective cells. For instance, in one use case that should not be construed as limiting, small coverage cell  16  may be operating according to one of WCDMA, and each of intra-frequency cell  18 , inter-frequency cell  20 , and inter-RAT cell  22  may be operating according to one of WCDMA, GSM, LTE, and variants thereof. 
     In some aspects, the one or more cells in the telecommunications network system  100  may communicate according to at least one technology such as, but not limited to, long term evolution (LTE), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000, wireless local area network (WLAN) (e.g., WiFi). Further, the transmission-related parameters associated with each of the one or more network entities, such as the foregoing non-limiting example network entities may include, but are not limited to, physical cell identity (PCI), primary synchronization code (PSC), pseudo-random noise code (PN), channel numbers and/or beacon patterns. 
     Moreover, for example, the wireless network system  10  may be an LTE network or some other wide wireless area network (WWAN). As such, the wireless communication system  10  may include a UE  12  having a communication manager component  14  configured to efficiently perform cell reselection evaluations when UE  12  is camped on a small cell  16 . 
     In certain aspects, communication manager component  14  may include reselection component  24 , which may be configured to determine whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on a small cell (e.g., small cell  16 ) communicating with UE  12  in a serving frequency and according to a serving RAT. The communication manager component  14  may further include measurement component  26 , which may be configured to perform a measurement of a signal (e.g., signal  28 ) transmitted by the small cell (e.g., small cell  16 ) in response to determining whether to perform the cell reselection evaluation. Moreover, communication manager component  14  may include evaluation component  30  which may be configured to determine that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal (e.g., signal  28 ) of the small cell (e.g., small cell  16 ) falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. Additionally, measurement component  26  may be configured to perform a measurement of a respective signal (e.g., signals  35 ,  37 , and/or  39 ) transmitted by one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell (e.g., small cell  16 ) falling below the measurement triggering threshold. Further, communication manager component  14  may include ranking component  32  which may be configured to rank the small cell (e.g., small cell  16 ) relative to the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal (e.g., signals  35 ,  37 , and/or  39 ) transmitted by the one or more other cells. Moreover, communication manager component  14  may include determination component  34  which may be configured to remain camped on the small cell (e.g., small cell  16 ) when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ). 
     An eNodeB may be an example of a station that communicates with one or more UEs (e.g., UE  12 ) and may also be referred to as a base station, an access point, etc. Each eNodeB (e.g., cells  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of an eNodeB  110  and/or an eNodeB subsystem serving the coverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. 
     An eNodeB may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by one or more UEs (e.g., UE  12 ) with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by one or more UEs (e.g., UE  12 ) with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by one or more UEs (e.g., UE  12 ) having association with the femto cell (e.g., UE  12  may be subscribed to a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UE  12  for users in the home, etc.). 
     An eNodeB for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro eNodeB. An eNodeB for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico eNodeB. An eNodeB for a femto cell may be referred to as a femto eNodeB or a home eNodeB. In the example shown in  FIG. 1 , the eNodeBs may be macro eNodeBs for the macro cells  18 ,  20 , and  22 . An eNodeB may provide communication coverage for one or more (e.g., three) cells. 
     The wireless network system  10  may be a heterogeneous network that includes eNodeBs of different types, e.g., macro eNodeBs, pico eNodeBs, femto eNodeBs, relays, etc. These different types of eNodeBs may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in the wireless network system  10 . For example, macro eNodeBs (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) may have a high transmit power level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereas pico eNodeBs, femto eNodeBs (e.g., small cell  16 ) and relays may have a lower transmit power level (e.g., 1 Watt). 
     The wireless network system  10  may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the eNodeBs may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different eNodeBs and may be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the eNodeBs may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different eNodeBs and may not be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be used for both synchronous and asynchronous operation. 
     The one or more UEs (e.g., UE  12 ) may be dispersed throughout the wireless network system  10 , and each UE may be stationary or mobile. For example, the UE  12  may be referred to as a terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, a station, etc. In another example, the UE  12  may be a cellular phone, a Smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a tablet, a netbook, a smart book, etc. The UE  12  may be able to communicate with macro eNodeBs, pico eNodeBs, femto eNodeBs, relays, etc. 
     LTE may utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM may partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols may be sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimum resource allocation (called a ‘resource block’) may be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , an aspect of the communication manager component  14  may include various components and/or subcomponents, which may be configured to facilitate small cell reselection when UE  12  is camping on small cell  16 . For instance, communication manager component  14  is configured to avoid making cell searches and measurements, and/or to avoid reselecting to another cell, such as one of an intra-frequency cell  18 , an inter-frequency cell  20 , and/or an inter-RAT cell  22 , when small coverage cell  16  is the best ranked cell in a serving frequency of small coverage cell  16 . The various components/subcomponents described herein enable communication manager component  14  to achieve such improved small cell reselection. 
     In an aspect, communication manager component  14  may include reselection component  24 . For instance, reselection component  24  may be configured to determine whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) communicating with the UE  12  in a serving frequency  41  and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT)  42 . For example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute a reselection component  24  that is configured to identify a trigger  40  for executing a cell reselection evaluation procedure. For instance, reselection component  24  may identify a trigger  40  such as, but not limited to, an occurrence of a discontinuous reception (DRX) time period, e.g., according to a DRX cycle, an occurrence or detection of network-indicated criteria such as may be received in a system information block (SIB) message, an occurrence of a change to information on the Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) used for the cell reselection evaluation procedure, or any other occasion that dictates performance of a cell reselection evaluation procedure. 
     Further, communication manager component  14  may include measurement component  26 . For instance, measurement component  26  may be configured to perform a measurement of a signal (e.g., pilot signal  43 ) transmitted by small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) in response to determining whether to perform the cell reselection evaluation. In some instances, pilot signal  43  may correspond to signal  28  ( FIG. 1 ) received from small cell  16 . Further, measurement component  26  may be configured to perform a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency  41  in response to the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  falling below a measurement triggering threshold  47 . In some instances, measurement component  26  may include a transceiver or a receiver and/or receive chain components, including hardware and software, for receiving, decoding, and analyzing a signal. 
     In a further aspect, communication manager component  14  may include evaluation component  30 . In some instances, evaluation component  30  may be configured to determine whether small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) is suitable based on cell reselection criteria  46  and based on the measurement of the pilot signal  43  transmitted by small cell  16 . For example, evaluation component  30  may receive pilot signal  43  from measurement component  26 , analyze pilot signal  43 , and generate at least one signal characteristic  45  (e.g., Sx, where Sx is the cell quality value for frequency division-duplexing (FDD) cells and E-UTRA cells and/or cell selection receive level for time division-duplexing (TDD) cells) based at least in part on the measurement of pilot signal  43 . Further, for example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute an evaluation component  30  that is configured to compare the at least one signal characteristic  45  of pilot signal  43  to one or more of a set of cell reselection criteria  46  to determine whether or not small coverage cell  28  is still a suitable cell for serving UE  12 . For instance, the cell reselection criteria  46  may include quality and receive level parameters. In an aspect, for example but not limited hereto, the cell reselection criteria  46  may include: 
       Squat= Q   qualmeas   −Q qualmin 
       Srxlev= Q   rxlevmeas   −Q rxlevmin− P compensation
 
     where: 
     
       
         
           
               
               
             
               
                   
               
             
            
               
                 Squal 
                 Cell Selection quality value (dB) 
               
               
                   
                 Applicable only for frequency division-duplexing 
               
               
                   
                 (FDD) cells and E-UTRA cells. 
               
               
                 Srxlev 
                 Cell Selection receive (RX) level value (dB) 
               
               
                 Q qualmeas   
                 Measured cell quality value. The quality of the received 
               
               
                   
                 signal expressed in Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) 
               
               
                   
                 Ec/N0 (dB) for FDD cells, and Reference Signal Receive 
               
               
                   
                 Quality (RSRQ) for E-UTRA cells. CPICH Ec/N0 and 
               
               
                   
                 RSRQ shall be averaged. 
               
               
                   
                 Applicable only for FDD cells and E-UTRA cells. 
               
               
                 Q rxlevmeas   
                 Measured cell RX level value. This is received signal, 
               
               
                   
                 CPICH RSCP for FDD cells (dBm), Primary Common 
               
               
                   
                 control physical channel (P-CCPCH) received signal 
               
               
                   
                 code power (RSCP) for TDD cells (dBm), an averaged 
               
               
                   
                 received signal level for GSM cells (dBm) and an 
               
               
                   
                 averaged Reference Signal Receive Power (RSRP) for 
               
               
                   
                 E-UTRA cells (dBm). CPICH RSCP, P-CCPCH RSCP, 
               
               
                   
                 the received signal level for GSM cells and the RSRP 
               
               
                   
                 for E-UTRA cells shall be averaged. 
               
               
                 Qqualmin 
                 Minimum required quality level in the cell (dB). 
               
               
                   
                 Applicable only for FDD cells and E-UTRA cells. 
               
               
                 Qrxlevmin 
                 Minimum required RX level in the cell (dBm) 
               
               
                 Pcompensation 
                 max(UE_TXPWR_MAX_RACH - P_MAX, 0) (dB) 
               
               
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     In an aspect, when small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) does not meet cell reselection criteria  46 , then the communication manager component  14  may enable UE  12  to execute legacy cell reselection evaluation procedures. Further, in an aspect, further execution of the present aspects may be based on small coverage cell  16  meeting cell reselection criteria  46 , or in other words, being a suitable cell for continuing to serve UE  12 . 
     Further, evaluation component  30  may be configured to determine that a signal character  45  based on the measurement of the pilot signal  43  of small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold  47 . For example, determining that the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) falls below the cell reselection measurement triggering threshold  47  further comprises determining that the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  falls below at least one of an intra-frequency cell reselection measurement triggering threshold, an inter-frequency cell reselection measurement triggering threshold, and an inter-RAT cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. For example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute evaluation component  30  that is configured to compare one or more signal characteristics  45 , e.g., Sx (where Sx is Squal for FDD cells and/or Srxlev for TDD), of pilot signal  43  to one or more respective cell reselection measurement triggering thresholds  47  and determine whether the one or more respective cell reselection measurement triggering thresholds  47  are met. For instance, evaluation component  30  that is configured to determine whether Sx S intrasearch , where S intrasearch  is an intra-frequency cell reselection measurement triggering threshold, or Sx&lt;=S intersearch , where S intersearch  is an inter-frequency cell reselection measurement triggering threshold, or Sx&lt;=Ssearch RAT m , where Ssearch RAT m  is an inter-RAT cell reselection measurement triggering threshold for given RAT, m. In an aspect, for example, evaluation component  30  may obtain the one or more respective cell reselection measurement triggering thresholds  47  from the wireless network system  10 , such as in a SIB message. 
     When one or more respective cell reselection measurement triggering thresholds  47  are met, conventionally, measurements and searches are performed on intra-frequency cells and inter-frequency cells and inter-RAT cells. Based on the present aspects, however, UE  12  may be able to avoid performing at least a part of such measurements and/or searches. 
     For example, measurement component  26  may be configured to perform a measurement of a respective signal  44  transmitted by one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22  in  FIG. 1 ) in only the serving frequency  41  in response to the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  being below the one or more measurement triggering thresholds  47 . In an aspect, for example, the performing of the measurement of the respective signal  44  transmitted by the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22  in  FIG. 1 ) in only the serving frequency  41  further comprises performing a measurement on cells that have been previously identified when a cell identification timer  48  has not expired and performing a fresh cell identification when the cell identification timer  48  has expired. For example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute measurement component  26 , which is specially configured according to the present aspects to measure only the serving frequency  41  in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) being below one or more cell reselection measurement triggering thresholds  47 . In other words, before proceeding with all of the measurements, the present aspects first measure the serving frequency  41  to determine a relative quality of small cell  16  in an effort to avoid unnecessary measurements and/or searching. 
     In a further aspect, communication manager component  14  may include ranking component  32 . For instance, ranking component  32  may be configured to rank the small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) relative to the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) based on the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  and a respective signal characteristic  49  of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal  44  transmitted by the one or more other cells. For example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute a ranking component  32  that is configured to compare the measured signal characteristic  45  of pilot signal  43  with any other detected and measured signals (e.g., signals  35 ,  27 , and/or  39  in  FIG. 1 ) in the serving frequency  41  of small cell  16 , and to rank or otherwise relatively order small coverage cell  16  relative to any other detected cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) based on detected and measured signals in order to facilitate identifying whether or not small cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency  41 . 
     In another aspect, communication manager component  14  may include determination component  34 . For instance, determination component  34  may be configured to remain camped on the small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) when the small cell  16  is ranked higher than the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ). In an aspect, for example, remaining camped on the small cell  16  is further based on the small cell  16  being suitable. For example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute a determination component  34  that is configured to communicate with ranking component  32  and to identify whether or not small cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency  41 . In the case where small cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency  41 , then determination component  34  is configured to allow UE  12  to remain camped on small cell  16 . 
     Furthermore, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute determination component  34  to initiate a sleep mode of operation based on the determination that UE  12  can remain camped on small cell  16 . For example, in an aspect, communication manager component  14  may execute determination component  34  to shut down use of communication resources, e.g., all or part of transceiver or receiver, for a remainder of the current DRX time period until a next wake-up time corresponding to the occurrence of a next DRX time period. 
     Moreover, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute measurement component  26  to detect and measure respective intra-frequency signals  35 , inter-frequency signals  37 , and inter-RAT signals  39  ( FIG. 1 ) and otherwise perform all of the cell measurements per conventional or legacy procedures, e.g., based on the expiration of list timers and/or full search timers, and/or based on known timings or already detected cells or cells identified in one or more messages received from the wireless network system  10 , such as SIB messages, for each respective RAT. 
     Additionally, in an aspect, determination component  34  may be configured to perform a cell reselection based on the respective measurements of the respective intra-frequency cells, the respective inter-frequency cells, and the respective inter-RAT cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 ,  22 , respectively, in  FIG. 1 ). For example, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute reselection determiner component  32  that is configured to make a cell reselection determination and perform a cell reselection per conventional or legacy procedures. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the methods are shown and described as a series of acts for purposes of simplicity of explanation. However, it is to be understood and appreciated that the methods (and further methods related thereto) are not limited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance with one or more aspects, occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts from that shown and described herein. For example, it is to be appreciated that the methods may alternatively be represented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in a state diagram. Moreover, not all illustrated acts may be required to implement a method in accordance with one or more features described herein. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , in an operational aspect, a UE such as UE  12  ( FIG. 1 ) may perform one aspect of a method  50  for cell reselection when camping on a small coverage cell according to the communication manager component  14  ( FIGS. 1 and 2 ). As described in further detail below, method  50  provides a process which may enhance cell reselection by a UE (e.g., UE  12 ,  FIG. 1 ). 
     In an aspect, at block  51 , method  50  includes determining, by a user equipment (UE), whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on a small cell communicating with the UE in a serving frequency and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT). For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute reselection component  24  to determine whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) communicating with the UE  12  in a serving frequency  41  and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT)  42 . In some instances, reselection component  24  is configured to identify a trigger  40  for executing a cell reselection evaluation procedure. 
     At block  52 , method  50  includes performing a measurement of a signal transmitted by the small cell in response to determining whether to perform the cell reselection evaluation. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute measurement component  26  to perform a measurement of a signal (e.g., pilot signal  43 ) transmitted by small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) in response to determining whether to perform the cell reselection evaluation. Further, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute an evaluation component  30  that is configured to compare the at least one signal characteristic  45  of pilot signal  43  to one or more of a set of cell reselection criteria  46  to determine whether or not small coverage cell  28  is still a suitable cell for serving UE  12 . 
     Further, at block  53 , method  50  may optionally include determining whether the small coverage cell is suitable based on the measurement of the transmitted signal and the cell reselection criteria corresponding to the cell reselection evaluation. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute evaluation component  26  to determine whether small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) is suitable based on cell reselection criteria  46  and based on the measurement of the pilot signal  43  transmitted by small cell  16 . For example, evaluation component  30  may receive pilot signal  43  from measurement component  26 , analyze pilot signal  43 , and generate at least one signal characteristic  45  based at least in part on the measurement of pilot signal  43 . 
     At block  54 , method  50  may include determining that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal of the small cell falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute evaluation component  30  to determine that a signal character  45  based on the measurement of the pilot signal  43  of small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold  47 . 
     At block  55 , method  50  may include performing a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell falling below the measurement triggering threshold. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute measurement component  26  to perform a measurement of a respective signal  44  transmitted by one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22  in  FIG. 1 ) in only the serving frequency  41  in response to the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  being below the one or more measurement triggering thresholds  47 . 
     At block  56 , method  50  may include ranking the small cell relative to the one or more other cells based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal transmitted by the one or more other cells. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute ranking component  32  to rank the small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) relative to the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 ) based on the signal characteristic  45  of the small cell  16  and a respective signal characteristic  49  of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal  44  transmitted by the one or more other cells. 
     At block  57 , method  50  may optionally include remaining camped on the small cell when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute determination component  34  to remain camped on the small cell  16  ( FIG. 1 ) when the small cell  16  is ranked higher than the one or more other cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and/or  22 . For example, remaining camped on the small cell  16  is further based on the small cell  16  being suitable based cell reselection criteria  46 . In an aspect, in an aspect, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  may execute a determination component  34  that is configured to communicate with ranking component  32  and to identify whether or not small cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency  41 . In the case where small cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency  41 , then determination component  34  is configured to allow UE  12  to remain camped on small cell  16 . 
     At block  58 , method  50  may optionally include initiating a sleep mode for the UE, wherein initiating the sleep mode comprises shutting down or otherwise reducing power consumed by one or more communication resources of the UE. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute determination component  26  to initiate a sleep mode of operation based on the determination that UE  12  can remain camped on small cell  16 . For example, in an aspect, communication manager component  14  may execute determination component  34  to shut down use of communication resources, e.g., all or part of transceiver or receiver, for a remainder of the current DRX time period until a next wake-up time corresponding to the occurrence of a next DRX time period. 
     At block  59 , method  50  may optionally include performing measurements on any intra-frequency cells, any inter-frequency cells, and any inter-RAT cells listed in one or more received system information messages when the small cell is not ranked higher than the one or more other cells. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute measurement component  26  to detect and measure respective intra-frequency signals  35 , inter-frequency signals  37 , and inter-RAT signals  39  ( FIG. 1 ) and otherwise perform all of the cell measurements per conventional or legacy procedures, e.g., based on the expiration of list timers and/or full search timers, and/or based on known timings or already detected cells or cells identified in one or more messages received from the wireless network system  10 , such as SIB messages, for each respective RAT. 
     At block  60 , method  50  may optionally include performing a cell reselection based on the respective measurements of the respective intra-frequency cells, the respective inter-frequency cells, and the respective inter-RAT cells. For example, as described herein, communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 2 ) may execute determination component  34  to perform a cell reselection based on the respective measurements of the respective intra-frequency cells, the respective inter-frequency cells, and the respective inter-RAT cells (e.g., cells  18 ,  20 ,  22 , respectively, in  FIG. 1 ). 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , in one example of a particular use case that should not be construed as limiting, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  of  FIG. 1  may execute a procedure  70  when UE  12  is camped on a small cell  16 , such as a femto cell (block  72 ). 
     At block  74 , method  70  may include UE  12  determining whether or not the small cell  16  is suitable. If not, then UE  12  performs conventional or legacy cell reselection procedures, as indicated at block  84 . If small cell  16  is suitable, then at block  76  UE  12  determines whether or not a trigger exist for performing measurements or searches on intra-frequency cells, inter-frequency cells, and inter-RAT cells. 
     At block  76 , method  70  may include determining whether or not a trigger exists for performing measurements or searches on intra-frequency cells, inter-frequency cells, and inter-RAT cells. For example, UE  12  ( FIG. 1 ) and/or communication manager component  14  may be configured to determine whether Squal is less than Sintra and intra-frequency measurements on previously identified cells where the legacy conditions were satisfied. Alternatively, UE  12  ( FIG. 1 ) and/or communication manager component  14  may be configured to determine whether Squal is less than Sintra and intra-frequency measurements on freshly identified cells where the legacy conditions were satisfied. Alternatively, UE  12  ( FIG. 1 ) and/or communication manager component  14  may be configured to determine, when the legacy conditions are satisfied for intra-frequency, GSM, and/or LTE (IF/G/L), whether an IF/G/L measurement timer has expired; and whether NSET cells are detected. Alternatively, UE  12  ( FIG. 1 ) and/or communication manager component  14  may be configured to determine, when the legacy conditions are satisfied for intra-frequency, GSM, and/or LTE (IF/G/L), whether IF/G/L fresh cell identification timer has expired and if IF/G/L frequencies are detected. 
     Additionally, for any measurements on previously identified cells and/or fresh cell identification (e.g., WCDMA/GSM/LTE) to happen then Squal is less than the respective threshold (e.g., WCDMA/GSM/LTE); the timer for measurements on previously identified cells and/or fresh cell identification on that respective RAT (W/G/L) should have expired; and measurements on previously identified cells and/or fresh cell identification need to have been performed. Specifically, for measurements on previously identified cells, there should be some timing known (e.g., whether a timer has expired) and/or already detected cells to measure on the respective RAT (W/G/L). Specifically, for fresh cell identification, there should be some cells broadcasted in SIBs to search on that respective RAT (W/G/L). If there is no trigger, then UE  12  proceeds to block  82  and optionally decodes CTCH, e.g., for emergency messages, or otherwise UE  12  returns to a sleep mode for the remainder of the current DRX cycle. 
     At block  76 , if UE  12  does determine existence of a trigger, then UE  12  proceeds to block  78  and performs only measurements on the serving frequency. For example, UE  12   FIG. 1 ) and/or communication manager component  14  determines to whether to perform a measurement on previously identified cells or a fresh cell identification. In some instances, UE  12  and/or communication manager component  14  performs intra-frequency measurements and ranks all intra-frequency cells with the serving cell (e.g., small cell  16 ). As such, if the intra-frequency cell identification timer has not expired, then measurements are only performed on intra-frequency cells previously identified, if synchronized cells are present. Otherwise, fresh cell identification may be performed if the intra-frequency cell identification timer has expired and all the legacy conditions are satisfied. 
     Further, at block  80 , based on the measurements in the serving frequency, UE  12  determines whether small coverage cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency If not, the UE  12  proceeds to block  84 , where UE  12  performs the legacy cell reselection procedures. Alternatively, at block  80 , if UE  12  determines that small coverage cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in the serving frequency, then UE  12  proceeds to block  82 . As described above, at block  82  UE  12  optionally decodes CTCH, e.g., for emergency messages, or otherwise returns to a sleep mode for the remainder of the current DRX cycle. 
     Thus, based on configuration of UE  12  according to the present aspects, UE  12  may be able to skip or otherwise avoid some cell searches and measurements associated with conventional cell reselection procedures when UE  12  is camped on a suitable small coverage cell  16  and when small coverage cell  16  is the highest ranked cell in its serving frequency. 
     In particular, according to the apparatus and methods described above, UE  12  is skipping inter-frequency and inter-RAT (GSM/LTE) measurements as long as the camped CSG cell is best ranked in its frequency. Thus, according to the present aspects, UE  12  will go to sleep faster in every DRX cycle, thereby saving battery life. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , one example of a hardware implementation of the present aspects includes an apparatus  100  employing a processing system  114  including communication manager component  14  ( FIG. 1 ) as described above. For instance, apparatus  100  may be the same as or similar to, or may be included within, UE  12  of  FIG. 1 . In this example, the processing system  114  may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus  102 . The bus  102  may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system  114  and the overall design constraints. The bus  102  links together various circuits including one or more processors, represented generally by the processor  104 , and computer-readable media, represented generally by the computer-readable medium  106 . The bus  102  may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further. A bus interface  108  provides an interface between the bus  102  and a transceiver  110 , which is connected to one or more antennas  120  for receiving or transmitting signals. The transceiver  110  and one or more antennas provide a mechanism for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. Depending upon the nature of the apparatus, a user interface  112  (e.g., keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided. 
     The processor  104  is responsible for managing the bus  102  and general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium  106 . The software, when executed by the processor  104 , causes the processing system  114  to perform the various functions described infra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium  106  may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor  104  when executing software. Communication manager component  14  as described above may be implemented in whole or in part by processor  104 , or by computer-readable medium  106 , or by any combination of processor  104  and computer-readable medium  106 . 
     The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a broad variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , by way of example and without limitation, the aspects of the present disclosure are presented with reference to a UMTS system  200  employing a W-CDMA air interface. In this case, user equipment  210  may be the same as or similar to UE  12  of  FIG. 1 , and may execute communication manager component  14  as described herein. UMTS system  200  includes three interacting domains: a Core Network (CN)  204 , a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)  202 , and User Equipment (UE)  210 . In this example, the UTRAN  202  provides various wireless services including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and/or other services. The UTRAN  202  may include a plurality of Radio Network Subsystems (RNSs) such as an RNS  207 , each controlled by a respective Radio Network Controller (RNC) such as an RNC  206 . Here, the UTRAN  202  may include any number of RNCs  206  and RNSs  207  in addition to the RNCs  206  and RNSs  207  illustrated herein. The RNC  206  is an apparatus responsible for, among other things, assigning, reconfiguring and releasing radio resources within the RNS  207 . The RNC  206  may be interconnected to other RNCs (not shown) in the UTRAN  202  through various types of interfaces such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or the like, using any suitable transport network. 
     Communication between UE  210  and a Node B  208  may be considered as including a physical (PHY) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer. Further, communication between a UE  210  and an RNC  206  by way of a respective Node B  208  may be considered as including a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In the instant specification, the PHY layer may be considered layer 1; the MAC layer may be considered layer 2; and the RRC layer may be considered layer 3. Information hereinbelow utilizes terminology introduced in the RRC Protocol Specification, 3GPP TS 25.331, incorporated herein by reference. 
     The geographic region covered by the RNS  207  may be divided into a number of cells, with a radio transceiver apparatus serving each cell. A radio transceiver apparatus is commonly referred to as a Node B in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), or some other suitable terminology. For clarity, three Node Bs  208  are shown in each RNS  207 ; however, the RNSs  207  may include any number of wireless Node Bs. The Node Bs  208  provide wireless access points to a CN  204  for any number of mobile apparatuses. Examples of a mobile apparatus include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a notebook, a netbook, a smartbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, or any other similar functioning device. The mobile apparatus is commonly referred to as a UE in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. In a UMTS system, the UE  210  may further include a universal subscriber identity module (USIM)  211 , which contains a user&#39;s subscription information to a network. For illustrative purposes, one UE  210  is shown in communication with a number of the Node Bs  208 . The DL, also called the forward link, refers to the communication link from a Node B  208  to a UE  210 , and the UL, also called the reverse link, refers to the communication link from a UE  210  to a Node B  208 . 
     The CN  204  interfaces with one or more access networks, such as the UTRAN  202 . As shown, the CN  204  is a GSM core network. However, as those skilled in the art will recognize, the various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented in a RAN, or other suitable access network, to provide UEs with access to types of CNs other than GSM networks. 
     The CN  204  includes a circuit-switched (CS) domain and a packet-switched (PS) domain. Some of the circuit-switched elements are a Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC), a Visitor location register (VLR) and a Gateway MSC. Packet-switched elements include a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Some network elements, like EIR, HLR, VLR and AuC may be shared by both of the circuit-switched and packet-switched domains. In the illustrated example, the CN  204  supports circuit-switched services with a MSC  212  and a GMSC  214 . In some applications, the GMSC  214  may be referred to as a media gateway (MGW). One or more RNCs, such as the RNC  206 , may be connected to the MSC  212 . The MSC  212  is an apparatus that controls call setup, call routing, and UE mobility functions. The MSC  212  also includes a VLR that contains subscriber-related information for the duration that a UE is in the coverage area of the MSC  212 . The GMSC  214  provides a gateway through the MSC  212  for the UE to access a circuit-switched network  216 . The GMSC  214  includes a home location register (HLR)  215  containing subscriber data, such as the data reflecting the details of the services to which a particular user has subscribed. The HLR is also associated with an authentication center (AuC) that contains subscriber-specific authentication data. When a call is received for a particular UE, the GMSC  214  queries the HLR  215  to determine the UE&#39;s location and forwards the call to the particular MSC serving that location. 
     The CN  204  also supports packet-data services with a serving GPRS support node (SGSN)  218  and a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN)  220 . GPRS, which stands for General Packet Radio Service, is designed to provide packet-data services at speeds higher than those available with standard circuit-switched data services. The GGSN  220  provides a connection for the UTRAN  202  to a packet-based network  222 . The packet-based network  222  may be the Internet, a private data network, or some other suitable packet-based network. The primary function of the GGSN  220  is to provide the UEs  210  with packet-based network connectivity. Data packets may be transferred between the GGSN  220  and the UEs  210  through the SGSN  218 , which performs primarily the same functions in the packet-based domain as the MSC  212  performs in the circuit-switched domain. 
     An air interface for UMTS may utilize a spread spectrum Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) system. The spread spectrum DS-CDMA spreads user data through multiplication by a sequence of pseudorandom bits called chips. The “wideband” W-CDMA air interface for UMTS is based on such direct sequence spread spectrum technology and additionally calls for a frequency division duplexing (FDD). FDD uses a different carrier frequency for the UL and DL between a Node B  208  and a UE  210 . Another air interface for UMTS that utilizes DS-CDMA, and uses time division duplexing (TDD), is the TD-SCDMA air interface. Those skilled in the art will recognize that although various examples described herein may refer to a W-CDMA air interface, the underlying principles may be equally applicable to a TD-SCDMA air interface. 
     An HSPA air interface includes a series of enhancements to the 3G/W-CDMA air interface, facilitating greater throughput and reduced latency. Among other modifications over prior releases, HSPA utilizes hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), shared channel transmission, and adaptive modulation and coding. The standards that define HSPA include HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) and HSUPA (high speed uplink packet access, also referred to as enhanced uplink, or EUL). 
     HSDPA utilizes as its transport channel the high-speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH). The HS-DSCH is implemented by three physical channels: the high-speed physical downlink shared channel (HS-PDSCH), the high-speed shared control channel (HS-SCCH), and the high-speed dedicated physical control channel (HS-DPCCH). 
     Among these physical channels, the HS-DPCCH carries the HARQ ACK/NACK signaling on the uplink to indicate whether a corresponding packet transmission was decoded successfully. That is, with respect to the downlink, the UE  210  provides feedback to the node B  208  over the HS-DPCCH to indicate whether it correctly decoded a packet on the downlink. 
     HS-DPCCH further includes feedback signaling from the UE  210  to assist the node B  208  in taking the right decision in terms of modulation and coding scheme and precoding weight selection, this feedback signaling including the CQI and PCI. 
     “HSPA Evolved” or HSPA+ is an evolution of the HSPA standard that includes MIMO and 64-QAM, enabling increased throughput and higher performance. That is, in an aspect of the disclosure, the node B  208  and/or the UE  210  may have multiple antennas supporting MIMO technology. The use of MIMO technology enables the node B  208  to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity. 
     Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) is a term generally used to refer to multi-antenna technology, that is, multiple transmit antennas (multiple inputs to the channel) and multiple receive antennas (multiple outputs from the channel). MIMO systems generally enhance data transmission performance, enabling diversity gains to reduce multipath fading and increase transmission quality, and spatial multiplexing gains to increase data throughput. 
     Spatial multiplexing may be used to transmit different streams of data simultaneously on the same frequency. The data steams may be transmitted to a single UE  210  to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs  210  to increase the overall system capacity. This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream through a different transmit antenna on the downlink. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE(s)  210  with different spatial signatures, which enables each of the UE(s)  210  to recover the one or more the data streams destined for that UE  210 . On the uplink, each UE  210  may transmit one or more spatially precoded data streams, which enables the node B  208  to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream. 
     Spatial multiplexing may be used when channel conditions are good. When channel conditions are less favorable, beamforming may be used to focus the transmission energy in one or more directions, or to improve transmission based on characteristics of the channel. This may be achieved by spatially precoding a data stream for transmission through multiple antennas. To achieve good coverage at the edges of the cell, a single stream beamforming transmission may be used in combination with transmit diversity. 
     Generally, for MIMO systems utilizing n transmit antennas, n transport blocks may be transmitted simultaneously over the same carrier utilizing the same channelization code. Note that the different transport blocks sent over the n transmit antennas may have the same or different modulation and coding schemes from one another. 
     On the other hand, Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) generally refers to a system utilizing a single transmit antenna (a single input to the channel) and multiple receive antennas (multiple outputs from the channel). Thus, in a SIMO system, a single transport block is sent over the respective carrier. 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , in another example, an access network  300  in a UTRAN architecture is illustrated and may include one or more UEs configured like UE  12  of  FIG. 1 , e.g., to include communication manager component  14  as described herein. The multiple access wireless communication system includes multiple cellular regions (cells), including cells  302 ,  304 , and  306 , each of which may include one or more sectors. The multiple sectors can be formed by groups of antennas with each antenna responsible for communication with UEs in a portion of the cell. For example, in cell  302 , antenna groups  312 ,  314 , and  316  may each correspond to a different sector. In cell  304 , antenna groups  318 ,  320 , and  322  each correspond to a different sector. In cell  306 , antenna groups  324 ,  326 , and  328  each correspond to a different sector. The cells  302 ,  304  and  306  may include several wireless communication devices, e.g., User Equipment or UEs, which may be in communication with one or more sectors of each cell  302 ,  304  or  306 . For example, UEs  330  and  332  may be in communication with Node B  342 , UEs  334  and  336  may be in communication with Node B  344 , and UEs  338  and  340  can be in communication with Node B  346 . Here, each Node B  342 ,  344 ,  346  is configured to provide an access point to a CN  204  for all the UEs  330 ,  332 ,  334 ,  336 ,  338 ,  340  in the respective cells  302 ,  304 , and  306 . 
     As the UE  334  moves from the illustrated location in cell  304  into cell  306 , a serving cell change (SCC) or handover may occur in which communication with the UE  334  transitions from the cell  304 , which may be referred to as the source cell, to cell  306 , which may be referred to as the target cell. Management of the handover procedure may take place at the UE  334 , at the Node Bs corresponding to the respective cells, at a radio network controller  206 , or at another suitable node in the wireless network. For example, during a call with the source cell  304 , or at any other time, the UE  334  may monitor various parameters of the source cell  304  as well as various parameters of neighboring cells such as cells  306  and  302 . Further, depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE  334  may maintain communication with one or more of the neighboring cells. During this time, the UE  334  may maintain an Active Set, that is, a list of cells that the UE  334  is simultaneously connected to (i.e., the UTRA cells that are currently assigning a downlink dedicated physical channel DPCH or fractional downlink dedicated physical channel F-DPCH to the UE  334  may constitute the Active Set). 
     The modulation and multiple access scheme employed by the access network  300  may vary depending on the particular telecommunications standard being deployed. By way of example, the standard may include Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB). EV-DO and UMB are air interface standards promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and employs CDMA to provide broadband Internet access to mobile stations. The standard may alternately be Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) employing Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA, such as TD-SCDMA; Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) employing TDMA; and Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, and Flash-OFDM employing OFDMA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE Advanced, and GSM are described in documents from the 3GPP organization. CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from the 3GPP2 organization. The actual wireless communication standard and the multiple access technology employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system. 
     Referring to  FIG. 8 , in one aspect, UE  12  of  FIG. 1  may operate in an exemplary communication system  400  that includes deployment of small coverage cells  16  within a network environment. The system  400  includes multiple small coverage cells  16  or femto cells, for example, each being installed in a corresponding small scale network environment, such as, for example, in one or more user residences  230 . The small scale network environment, e.g., user residence  230 , may be within or overlapping with one or more macro access networks  220  of one or more macro cells. As such, UE  12  may be able to communicate with either macro cell or small coverage cell  16 . Further, each small coverage cell  16  may be being configured to serve associated, as well as alien, user equipment, such as UE  12 . For instance, each small coverage cell  16  may be operate in an open mode, or in a closed mode where access is only granted to UEs that are members of a corresponding closed subscriber group (CSG), or in some combination of both mode, e.g., a hybrid mode. Each small coverage cell  16  is further coupled to the Internet  440  and a mobile operator core network  450 , such as via a DSL router (not shown) or, alternatively, via a cable modem (not shown). 
       FIG. 9  is a block diagram of a Node B  910  in communication with a UE  950 , where UE  950  may be UE  12  of  FIG. 1  configured with communication manager component  14  as described herein. Moreover, Node B  910  may be any one of small coverage cell  16  or the other macro cells, e.g., cells  18 ,  20 , and  22 , of  FIG. 1 . In the downlink communication, a transmit processor  920  may receive data from a data source  912  and control signals from a controller/processor  940 . The transmit processor  920  provides various signal processing functions for the data and control signals, as well as reference signals (e.g., pilot signals). For example, the transmit processor  920  may provide cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes for error detection, coding and interleaving to facilitate forward error correction (FEC), mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), and the like), spreading with orthogonal variable spreading factors (OVSF), and multiplying with scrambling codes to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates from a channel processor  944  may be used by a controller/processor  940  to determine the coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling schemes for the transmit processor  920 . These channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal transmitted by the UE  950  or from feedback from the UE  950 . The symbols generated by the transmit processor  920  are provided to a transmit frame processor  930  to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor  930  creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with information from the controller/processor  940 , resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter  932 , which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplifying, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for downlink transmission over the wireless medium through antenna  934 . The antenna  934  may include one or more antennas, for example, including beam steering bidirectional adaptive antenna arrays or other similar beam technologies. 
     At the UE  950 , a receiver  954  receives the downlink transmission through an antenna  952  and processes the transmission to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by the receiver  954  is provided to a receive frame processor  960 , which parses each frame, and provides information from the frames to a channel processor  994  and the data, control, and reference signals to a receive processor  970 . The receive processor  970  then performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmit processor  920  in the Node B  910 . More specifically, the receive processor  970  descrambles and despreads the symbols, and then determines the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the Node B  910  based on the modulation scheme. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by the channel processor  994 . The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data, control, and reference signals. The CRC codes are then checked to determine whether the frames were successfully decoded. The data carried by the successfully decoded frames will then be provided to a data sink  972 , which represents applications running in the UE  950  and/or various user interfaces (e.g., display). Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller/processor  990 . When frames are unsuccessfully decoded by the receiver processor  970 , the controller/processor  990  may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames. 
     In the uplink, data from a data source  978  and control signals from the controller/processor  990  are provided to a transmit processor  980 . The data source  978  may represent applications running in the UE  950  and various user interfaces (e.g., keyboard). Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by the Node B  910 , the transmit processor  980  provides various signal processing functions including CRC codes, coding and interleaving to facilitate FEC, mapping to signal constellations, spreading with OVSFs, and scrambling to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates, derived by the channel processor  994  from a reference signal transmitted by the Node B  910  or from feedback contained in the midamble transmitted by the Node B  910 , may be used to select the appropriate coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling schemes. The symbols produced by the transmit processor  980  will be provided to a transmit frame processor  982  to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor  982  creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with information from the controller/processor  990 , resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter  956 , which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplification, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for uplink transmission over the wireless medium through the antenna  952 . 
     The uplink transmission is processed at the Node B  910  in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function at the UE  950 . A receiver  935  receives the uplink transmission through the antenna  934  and processes the transmission to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by the receiver  935  is provided to a receive frame processor  936 , which parses each frame, and provides information from the frames to the channel processor  944  and the data, control, and reference signals to a receive processor  938 . The receive processor  938  performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmit processor  980  in the UE  950 . The data and control signals carried by the successfully decoded frames may then be provided to a data sink  939  and the controller/processor, respectively. If some of the frames were unsuccessfully decoded by the receive processor, the controller/processor  940  may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames. 
     The controller/processors  940  and  990  may be used to direct the operation at the Node B  910  and the UE  950 , respectively. For example, the controller/processors  940  and  990  may provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. The computer readable media of memories  942  and  992  may store data and software for the Node B  910  and the UE  950 , respectively. A scheduler/processor  946  at the Node B  910  may be used to allocate resources to the UEs and schedule downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the UEs. 
     With reference to  FIG. 10 , illustrated is a system  1000  for facilitating small cell reselection when UE  12  is camping on small cell  16 . For example, system  1000  can reside at least partially within a base station, mobile device, etc. It is to be appreciated that system  1000  is represented as including functional blocks, which can be functional blocks that represent functions implemented by a processor, software, or combination thereof (e.g., firmware). System  1000  includes a logical grouping  1002  of means that can act in conjunction. For instance, logical grouping  1002  can include means for determining, by a user equipment (UE), whether to perform a cell reselection evaluation after camping on a small cell communicating with the UE in a serving frequency and according to a serving radio access technology (RAT). Further, logical grouping  1002  can comprise means for performing a measurement of a signal transmitted by the small cell in response to determining whether to perform the cell reselection evaluation  1006 . Moreover, logical grouping  1002  can comprise means for determining that a signal characteristic based on the measurement of the signal of the small cell falls below a cell reselection measurement triggering threshold  1008 . Additionally, logical grouping  1002  can comprise means for performing a measurement of a respective signal transmitted by one or more other cells in only the serving frequency in response to the signal characteristic of the small cell falling below the measurement triggering threshold  1010 . Logical grouping  1002  can comprise means for ranking the small cell relative to the one or more other cells based on the signal characteristic of the small cell and a respective signal characteristic of the one or more other cells determined from the measurement of the respective signal transmitted by the one or more other cells  1012 . Logical grouping  1002  can comprise means for remaining camped on the small cell when the small cell is ranked higher than the one or more other cells  1014 . Thus, as described, system  1000  facilitates small cell reselection when UE  12  is camping on small cell  16 . Additionally, system  1000  can include a memory  1016  that retains instructions for executing functions associated with the means  1004 ,  1006 ,  1008 ,  1010 ,  1012 , and  1014 . While shown as being external to memory  1016 , it is to be understood that one or more of the means  1004 ,  1006 ,  1008 ,  1010 ,  1012 , and  1014  can exist within memory  1016 . 
     As used in this application, the terms “component,” “module,” “system” and the like are intended to include a computer-related entity, such as but not limited to hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets, such as data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the Internet with other systems by way of the signal. 
     Furthermore, various aspects are described herein in connection with a UE, which can be a wired terminal or a wireless terminal. A UE can also be called a system, device, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile, mobile device, remote station, remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal, terminal, communication device, user agent, or user device. A UE may be a cellular telephone, a satellite phone, a cordless telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device having wireless connection capability, a computing device, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem. Moreover, various aspects are described herein in connection with a base station. A base station may be utilized for communicating with UE or wireless terminal(s) and may also be referred to as an access point, a Node B, or some other terminology. 
     Moreover, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or” rather than an exclusive “or.” That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from the context, the phrase “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, the phrase “X employs A or B” is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” as used in this application and the appended claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear from the context to be directed to a singular form. 
     The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA and other systems. The terms “system” and “network” are often used interchangeably. A CDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA. Further, cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM□, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a release of UMTS that uses E-UTRA, which employs OFDMA on the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE and GSM are described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). Additionally, cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). Further, such wireless communication systems may additionally include peer-to-peer (e.g., mobile-to-mobile) ad hoc network systems often using unpaired unlicensed spectrums, 802.xx wireless LAN, BLUETOOTH and any other short- or long-range, wireless communication techniques. 
     Various aspects or features have been presented in terms of systems that may include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. A combination of these approaches may also be used. 
     The various illustrative logics, logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but, in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Additionally, at least one processor may comprise one or more modules operable to perform one or more of the steps and/or actions described above. 
     Further, the steps and/or actions of a method or algorithm described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor, such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. Further, in some aspects, the processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal. Additionally, in some aspects, the steps and/or actions of a method or algorithm may reside as one or any combination or set of codes and/or instructions on a machine readable medium and/or computer readable medium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product. 
     In one or more aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmitted as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection may be termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs usually reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media. 
     While the foregoing disclosure discusses illustrative aspects and/or embodiments, it should be noted that various changes and modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope of the described aspects and/or embodiments as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, although elements of the described aspects and/or embodiments may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. Additionally, all or a portion of any aspect and/or embodiment may be utilized with all or a portion of any other aspect and/or embodiment, unless stated otherwise.