Patent ID: 8599880

Claim:
A method comprising: providing service, by a femtocell, to one or more Simultaneous Hybrid Dual Receive (SHDR) mobile stations, wherein the SHDR mobile stations each comprise a transmit and primary receive chain (T×R×0) and a secondary receive chain (R×1), wherein each SHDR mobile station uses its respective T×R×0 for communicating with and via the femtocell, and wherein each SHDR mobile station uses its respective R×1 for monitoring a macro network, wherein monitoring the macro network comprises monitoring at least a detected signal strength of one or more respective macro-network pilot channels of one or more macro-network coverage areas; receiving reports, by the femtocell, from at least the SHDR mobile stations to which the femtocell is providing service, the reports reflecting at least the detected signal strengths of the respective macro-network pilot channels; receiving a handoff request, by the femtocell, from a given mobile station, the handoff request indicating that a signal strength of a signal from the femtocell, as received at the given mobile station, is below a first threshold level of signal strength; using the received reports, by the femtocell, for making and carrying out decisions as to whether or not to instruct one or more SHDR mobile stations to handoff to the macro network, wherein making and carrying out decisions as to whether or not to instruct one or more SHDR mobile stations to handoff to the macro network comprises (i) using reports from the given mobile station to evaluate a quality of macro-network signal currently being received by the given mobile station, (ii) not instructing the given mobile station to handoff to the macro network when the quality of macro-network signal currently being received by the given mobile station is below a second threshold level of signal strength, and alerting a user of the given mobile station that moving away from the femtocell risks causing a dropped call when the quality of macro-network signal currently being received by the given mobile station is below the second threshold level of signal strength, wherein alerting the user comprises providing an alert selected from the group consisting of an audible alert and a visible alert.