Patent ID: 8634833

Claim:
A method for macrocell-to-femtocell hand-in, the method comprising: communicating a non-directed proximity request message from a femto-proxy system over an out-of-band (OOB) channel, the proximity request message configured to be received by any of a plurality of access terminals when in proximity to the femto-proxy system, the femto-proxy system comprising an OOB radio and a femtocell communicatively coupled with a core network element; receiving a proximity response message over the OOB link from an access terminal of the plurality of access terminals in response to the proximity request message, the proximity response message indicating that the access terminal is in proximity to the femto-proxy system; determining whether any of the plurality of access terminals is in active macro network communications after receiving the proximity response message over the OOB channel, wherein determining whether any of the plurality of access terminals is in active macro communications comprises detecting communications over macro channels using reverse-link sensing; and communicating a presence indication from the femtocell to the core network element indicating proximity of the access terminal to the femtocell in response to at least one of the plurality of access terminals determined to be proximate is determined to be in active macro communications; and facilitating active hand-in of the access terminal from a source macrocell of a macro network to the femtocell.