Patent ID: 8805372

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a neighbor list at a mobile station from a base station of a first cell, wherein the first cell is included in a wireless communication system; receiving a signal at the mobile station from a base station of at least one neighbor cell, wherein the base station of the at least one neighbor cell is identified in the neighbor list; determining, at the mobile station, a signal quality level of the signal, wherein the signal quality level comprises at least one of a signal to noise ratio, a signal to interference ratio, or a signal to interference plus noise ratio; determining whether the signal quality level of the signal satisfies a signal quality threshold; adding an identifier of the at least one neighbor cell to a potential handover candidate list of neighbor cells in response to the signal quality level of the signal satisfying the signal quality threshold, wherein each of the neighbor cells identified in the potential handover candidate list has a corresponding signal quality level, and wherein the signal quality threshold is set at a decibel (dB) level corresponding to a target handover success rate based on historical data, wherein the historical data comprises data compiled and averaged from handovers that occurred over a period of time; and ranking, at the mobile station, the neighbor cells identified in the potential handover candidate list based on the respective corresponding signal quality levels to produce an ordered list, wherein the identifier of the at least one neighbor cell is added at a position within the ordered list based on the corresponding signal quality level.