Patent ID: 7546126

Claim:
A method of creating a list of neighboring base station units in a wireless communications network, wherein at least one mobile unit communicates with at least a portion of the network, the method of creating the list of neighboring base station units comprising: at a stationary base station unit in the communications network, wirelessly sending a first inquiry signal to neighboring wireless devices at a first power level to inquire whether a device is within a first range; at a stationary base station unit in the communications network, wirelessly sending a second inquiry signal to neighboring wireless devices at a second power level different from the first power level to inquire whether a device is within a second range; at the stationary base station unit in the communications network, wirelessly receiving at least one response signal from at least one neighboring base station unit in the communications network, wherein the one neighboring base station unit is stationary; at the stationary base station unit in the communications network, identifying based on the at least one response signal whether the at least one neighboring base station unit is within the first range or the second range; at the stationary base station unit in the communications network, identifying the one neighboring base station unit based in part on the received response signal, wherein identifying the at least one neighboring base station unit is done without involvement of the mobile unit system controller and without involvement of a system controller for the communications network; and at the stationary base station unit in the communications network, providing a stored neighbor list that identifies the one neighboring base station unit in the communications network.