Patent ID: 8041353

Claim:
In a network comprising a first base station serving a first cell and a second base station serving a second cell, a method for automatically adding a global cell identifier (GCI) associated with the second cell to a neighbor cell list associated with the first cell, the method comprising: receiving, at the first base station, a message transmitted by a mobile terminal, the message comprising a physical layer cell identifier (PCI) associated with the second cell and/or cell quality information pertaining to the second cell; after receiving the message, determining whether the GCI associated with the second cell should be added to the neighbor cell list associated with the first cell; in response to determining that the GCI associated with the second cell should be added to the neighbor cell list, selecting a particular mobile terminal from a set of mobile terminals; instructing the selected mobile terminal to obtain and report the GCI associated with the second cell; receiving from the selected mobile terminal the GCI; and adding the GCI to the neighbor cell list, wherein the step of selecting the particular mobile terminal from the set of mobile terminals comprises determining which of the mobile terminals in the set appears to have a relatively high probability of obtaining the GCI within a certain window of time and selecting that mobile terminal.