Patent ID: 8345633

Claim:
A method of identifying which one of a plurality of femtocell base stations neighbouring a first base station is to be the target for handover of a call connection with a user terminal from the first base station, the femtocell base stations using code-division multiple access, CDMA, wherein the neighbour femtocell base stations use the same primary scrambling code as each other, the method comprising: transmitting by each of the neighbour femtocell base stations a respective broadcast signal that include timing information such that each neighbour femtocell base station transmits a respective broadcast signal having different timing information to that of the other neighbour femtocell base stations; receiving by the user terminal at least one of the broadcast signals; determining by the user terminal the timing information of at least one of the received broadcast signals and reporting the timing information to the first base station; and identifying by the first base station the target femtocell base station for handover from the timing information; in which the first base station has records of expected timing information associated with at least one of the neighbour femtocell base stations, and compares the determined timing information to the recorded expected timing information of at least one neighbour femtocell base station so as to identify which one of the neighbour femtocell base stations is to be target femtocell base station for handover; wherein the first base station being a first femtocell base station; for each of the femtocell base stations, the respective expected timing information is dependent upon a timing offset applied to the broadcast signals on a broadcast channel transmitted by that femtocell base station; each femtocell base station selects a timing offset from a range, in a random or pseudo-random manner; and in which the first femtocell base station attempts to handover a call connection with the user terminal to each of the neighbouring femtocell base stations, and upon one of the handover attempts being successful, the first femtocell base station records the measurement report from the user terminal that the first femtocell base station received just prior to handover, and considers the value of the timing offset calculated from that measurement report as the timing offset of the neighbouring base station to which the handover was successful.