Patent ID: 7636335

Claim:
A method for selecting one or more Diversity Handover, DHO, nodes executing a macro diversity functionality, in a mobile telecommunication network wherein the macro diversity functionality is distributed to one or a plurality of DHO nodes including a Radio Network Controller, RNC, its connected Node B(s) in said network, and any DHO enabled node(s) therebetween, the method comprising: a. obtaining topology information comprising a hop-by-hop route from the RNC to each of its connected Node Bs and at least one metric for each hop in the route, and b. using an algorithm for selecting one or more DHO node(s), whereby the algorithm comprises: forming a macro diversity tree of the routes based on the obtained topology information, and selecting the Node B(s) and/or the RNC and/or other DHO enabled node(s), that result in a best accumulated metric for all potential data flows between the RNC and its connected Node B(s) in the macro diversity tree of routes, as the DHO node(s), c. checking that a maximum allowed delay is not exceeded for a data path for each of the selected one or more DHO node(s) by using a delay metric from the topology information, and when the maximum allowed delay is exceeded, performing a delay reduction procedure until the maximum allowed delay is not exceeded, wherein the delay reduction procedure comprises removing one or more already selected DHO nodes from the path.