Patent ID: 11665602

Abstract:
Automatic cell discovery of a source radio access network (RAN) cell by a neighboring, target RAN by initiating a fake handover of a user equipment (UE) from a source RAN cell to a target RAN. A source RAN cell initiates a handover request using handover signaling to the target RAN(s). The handover request is a fake handover request without actual intention of handing over UE to the target RAN. The source RAN cell includes information in initiated handover request that can be used by target RAN to discover source RAN cell. The handover request will fail, because the handover request is not for any actual UE moving from the source RAN cell to the target RAN. However, the target RAN becomes aware of the source RAN cell as a result of this process and can add the source RAN cell (e.g., its EARFCN) to a list of its neighboring cells.