Patent ID: 6859654

Claim:
A cellular communications system comprising: a plurality of base stations configured to conduct communications with mobile stations via a radio interface, wherein the mobile stations are used by subscribers; a storage system arranged to receive and store first data derived from radio resource signalling reports generated by mobile stations when in connected mode in the cellular communications system, wherein the cellular communications system is arranged to route the radio resource signalling reports from the mobile stations via the plurality of base stations to the storage system, and wherein the storage system is configured to store second data associated with the subscribers; and a service node arranged to: receive data from the storage system for use in performing handover decisions, wherein the received data includes at least a portion of the first data and at least a portion of the second data; process the received data so as to allocate a radio resource to the mobile station, wherein the radio resource is allocated by selecting, from base stations for which radio resource measurements have been received from the mobile station, a base station for handover at least in part on the basis of both the first data and the second data; and transmit data identifying the allocated radio resource to at least one of the base stations.