Patent ID: 8630650

Claim:
A method for controlling a number of cells in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: providing a service in a first cell, which is associated with a closed subscriber group (CSG) terminal that belongs to a specific terminal group and a non-CSG terminal that does not belong to the specific terminal group; and determining whether to continuously provide the service to the non-CSG terminal in the first cell, wherein: when the service is determined to be continuously provided to the non-CSG terminal in the first cell, reducing a data rate of the non-CSG terminal in the first cell, and when the service is determined not to be provided to the non-CSG terminal in the first cell, triggering transition from a first operation mode of the first cell for providing the service to the CSG terminal and the non-CSG terminal to a second operation mode of the first cell for providing the service only to the CSG terminal, and performing handover of the non-CSG terminal to a second cell.