Patent ID: 8095075

Claim:
A method, in a telecommunication network, of detecting and correcting a sleeping cell, the method comprising the steps of: receiving by a Radio Network Controller (RNC) within the telecommunication network, a message from a User Equipment (UE) identifying a cell that is transmitting on a broadcast channel, but lacks alarms and is unable to set up traffic; the RNC confirming that the cell is a sleeping cell; and upon confirming that the cell is a sleeping cell, the RNC performing the steps of: sending an alarm to alert the network of the sleeping cell; and attempting to awaken the sleeping cell by: automatically locking and unlocking the sleeping cell and thereafter monitoring the cell's performance; if the cell reappears as a sleeping cell within a first predetermined time period, restarting a radio base station in the cell with a saved configuration and thereafter monitoring the cell's performance; and if the cell again reappears as a sleeping cell within a second predetermined time period, locking the cell and stopping the broadcast channel of the cell.