Patent ID: 8619708

Claim:
A method in a wireless network that includes a device, the method comprising: detecting, by the device, an overload in a serving cell of the wireless network based on information associated with the serving cell; calculating a first user throughput of each user equipment in the serving cell based on a serving cell path gain for each of the user equipment in the serving cell, and a second user throughput of each user equipment in the serving cell based on a target cell path gain for each of the user equipment in the serving cell; determining, by the device and when the overload in the serving cell is detected, user equipment in the serving cell that are candidates to move to a target cell of the wireless network based on the calculated first and second user throughputs of user equipment in the serving cell; selecting, by the device, all user equipment that are determined to be candidates to move to the target cell and are further determined to be in a hysteresis zone provided between the serving cell and the target cell; and moving, by the device, the selected user equipment to the target cell, where said determining user equipment in the serving cell that are candidates to move to the target cell includes: dividing the second user throughput of each user equipment in the serving cell by the first user throughput of each user equipment in the serving cell to obtain a ratio for each user equipment in the serving cell; and determining each respective user equipment in the serving cell to be a candidate to move to the target cell when the ratio associated with the respective user equipment in the serving cell is greater than or equal to a particular threshold; where said moving the selected user equipment to the target cell includes: ranking the selected user equipment; negotiate a change in a handover border provided between the serving cell and the target cell, and shifting, based on the negotiation, the handover border in a stepwise fashion causing at least one of the selected user equipment with a first rank to move to the target cell at a first time and causing at least one of the selected user equipment with a second rank to move to the target cell at a second time, where the second time is different than the first time.