Patent ID: 8200224

Claim:
A handover method in a base station of a mobile communication system, said mobile communication system further comprising a plurality of base stations, a telecommunication link being established between a user equipment and said base station, the method comprising: receiving a first measurement report from said user equipment via said telecommunication link, said first measurement report containing an evaluation of signal quality from at least one candidate base station of said plurality of base stations for a handover; selecting a first candidate base station using said evaluation of said signal quality from said first measurement report; initiating a first handover preparation by transmitting a first request to said first candidate base station; determining if said first handover preparation has failed; selecting a set of candidate base stations including at least some of said candidate base stations identified in said first measurement report; initiating a second handover preparation by transmitting a second handover request to a plurality of said set of candidate base stations, if said first handover preparation has failed; selecting a target base station from said set of candidate base stations, if said second handover preparation has not failed; initiating said handover of said user equipment from said base station to said target base station; wherein said first and said second request are indicative of a set of radio bearers used by said user equipment, wherein a second measurement report is received from said user equipment, said second measurement report containing a second evaluation of signal quality of at least one of said set of candidate base stations, wherein said plurality of candidate base stations for said second handover preparation includes at least one of said candidate base stations identified in said second measurement report.