Patent ID: 8588759

Claim:
A method for use in a cellular radio communications network including previously-operational cells, wherein a need is detected for a cell identifier associated with one of the previously-operational cells in the cellular radio communications network that is already supporting one or more UE call connections, comprising: a node associated with the one previously-operational cell determining neighbor cell relations (NCR) information from one or more cell(s) neighboring the one previously-operational cell; based on the NCR information, the node determining a cell identifier for the one previously-operational cell that is different from cell identifiers indicated in the NCR information; the node providing the different cell identifier to another cell different from the one previously-operational cell; and the node informs one or more user equipment terminals (UEs) of a discontinued transmission time period during which the one or more UEs can measure received signals from other cells in order to detect whether the cell identifier for the one previously-operational cell is received.