Patent ID: 8363621

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, in a mobile station operable through base stations of a macro wireless communication network operated by a carrier and through at least one of a plurality of customer premises femto cells, a transmission of a neighbor list message from a base station of the carrier's macro network, the neighbor list message containing information for use in searching at a particular frequency for and selecting a femto cell base transceiver system (BTS), wherein the information for use in searching for and selecting a femto cell comprises an identification of a primary frequency channel designated for use by all femto cell BTSs of the carrier's customers in a region served by the carrier's macro network, from among a plurality of channels available for femto cell communication, and a code designated for use by femto cell BTSs of the carrier's customers in the region communicating on the primary frequency channel; searching for a system with which to register the mobile station for handoff, the search including searching the primary frequency channel for communications of a femto cell BTS using the code; and upon detecting a condition for handoff, initiating a procedure to register the mobile station with one of the femto cell BTSs, based on the search detecting use of the code on the primary frequency channel, wherein: (a) the code designated for use by femto cell BTSs comprises a pseudorandom noise (PN) code for a pilot on the primary frequency channel, and (i) the PN code for the pilot on the primary frequency channel is the same PN code for all femto cell BTSs in the region, or (ii) the information for use in searching for and selecting a femto cell further includes a PN code for traffic communication service on the primary frequency channel, or (b) the step of initiating a procedure to register the mobile station with one of the femto cell BTSs comprises: performing a hash, using data obtained from a pilot of the one femto cell BTS on the primary frequency channel, to identify a frequency channel designated for traffic communications with the one femto cell BTS; and registering the mobile station with the one femto cell BTS using the identified frequency channel.