Embodiments of the present invention provide a cell handover method and a device. so that the target eNB uses a current serving small node as a user plane serving node after UE is handed over and uses the target eNB as a control plane serving node after the UE is handed over; receiving a handover request acknowledgment sent by the target eNB; and sending offloading configuration information of the current serving small node to the current serving small node, and sending RRC reconfiguration information of the UE to the UE, so that offloading configuration is performed separately by the current serving small node and the UE. This avoids a problem that in a cell handover process, a transmission resource required for transmission increases and a delay is relatively great because the current serving small node forwards a large amount of data to the target eNB.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a cell handover method and a device. so that the target eNB uses a current serving small node as a user plane serving node after UE is handed over and uses the target eNB as a control plane serving node after the UE is handed over; receiving a handover request acknowledgment sent by the target eNB; and sending offloading configuration information of the current serving small node to the current serving small node, and sending RRC reconfiguration information of the UE to the UE, so that offloading configuration is performed separately by the current serving small node and the UE. This avoids a problem that in a cell handover process, a transmission resource required for transmission increases and a delay is relatively great because the current serving small node forwards a large amount of data to the target eNB.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (UE) implements techniques for avoiding conflicts between UE-initiated and network-initiated handovers. In one embodiment, one or more first radios are configured to perform cellular communication using different first and second cellular radio access technologies (RATs) and a second radio is configured to perform wireless communication using a short-range RAT. In one embodiment, the mobile device is configured to, while communicating using the first cellular RAT, in response to determining that an inter-RAT handover to the short-range RAT is likely to be initiated or has been initiated by the at least one processor, delay sending a measurement report to the cellular base station. This delay may avoid conflict between handovers initiated by the network in response to the measurement report (e.g., from the first cellular RAT to the second cellular RAT) and the inter-RAT handover.

According to the present application, a base station device is configured to manage a vertically-oriented cell and a ground cell with respective IDs used to identify each cell, to determine whether or not a counterpart terminal device is an aircraft terminal device for air-to-ground communication based on a terminal ID included in a message received therefrom, and to control communication with the counterpart terminal device such that, if the counterpart terminal device is an aircraft terminal device, the base station selects the vertically-oriented cell as a connection destination of the counterpart terminal device and transmits a connection instruction message including a cell ID of the vertically-oriented cell to the counterpart terminal device, otherwise, the base station selects the ground cell as a connection destination of the counterpart terminal device and transmits a connection instruction message including a cell ID of the ground cell to the counterpart terminal device.

An integrated radio communication system with ordered hierarchical cellular coverage comprises a first system and a second system, the coverage of the second system covered by the coverage of the first system, and a set of dual-mode terminals that can selectively use the first system or the second system. The first and second systems are configured to simultaneously share a common portion Bc of a first band B1 of frequencies respectively on a first uplink and a second uplink, and respectively manage first transmission resources and corresponding second transmission resources. The second radio communication system of lower level N2 is free to manage its second transmission resources without any coordination constraint with respect to the first system of higher level N1, whereas the first system of higher level is configured to not disturb the second system in the common frequency band portion. The first system is configured to transmit data packets on a first uplink random access contention channel and to manage its first resources optimally in terms of transmission capacity of the channel as a function of the measurement of the occupancy of the second radio resources currently used by the second system and of the first resources currently used by the first system.

An integrated radio communication system with ordered hierarchical cellular coverage comprises a first system and a second system, the coverage of the second system covered by the coverage of the first system, and a set of dual-mode terminals that can selectively use the first system or the second system. The first and second systems are configured to simultaneously share a common portion Bc of a first band B1 of frequencies respectively on a first uplink and a second uplink, and respectively manage first transmission resources and corresponding second transmission resources. The second radio communication system of lower level N2 is free to manage its second transmission resources without any coordination constraint with respect to the first system of higher level N1, whereas the first system of higher level is configured to not disturb the second system in the common frequency band portion. The first system is configured to transmit data packets on a first uplink random access contention channel and to manage its first resources optimally in terms of transmission capacity of the channel as a function of the measurement of the occupancy of the second radio resources currently used by the second system and of the first resources currently used by the first system.

Provided is a base station that enables data communications in a small cell to continue even if a handover between macro cells occurs. In the base station (100), a handover determination unit (105) determines whether the handover of a control plane from the base station (100) to another macro cell is necessary for a terminal. If it is determined that the handover is necessary, a radio resource control unit (109) and a slave radio resource control unit (110) continue the control of a user plane communication process when the terminal is located inside a small cell, and the radio resource control unit (109) and slave radio resource control unit (110) stop the control of the user plane communication process and perform a process of handover to the other macro cell when the terminal is located outside the small cell.

Provided is a base station that enables data communications in a small cell to continue even if a handover between macro cells occurs. In the base station (100), a handover determination unit (105) determines whether the handover of a control plane from the base station (100) to another macro cell is necessary for a terminal. If it is determined that the handover is necessary, a radio resource control unit (109) and a slave radio resource control unit (110) continue the control of a user plane communication process when the terminal is located inside a small cell, and the radio resource control unit (109) and slave radio resource control unit (110) stop the control of the user plane communication process and perform a process of handover to the other macro cell when the terminal is located outside the small cell.

A method of influencing operation of user equipment in a wireless telecommunications network, a computer program product and network control node operable to perform that method. The method comprises: providing user equipment with a neighbor cell list; selecting at least one priority criteria to be applied by user equipment to a cell included in said neighbor cell list; and communicating the selected priority criteria to user equipment, determining an action to be taken by user equipment in relation to a cell meeting said priority criteria and communicating said action to user equipment and wherein the action comprises: a measurement performance requirement to be applied in relation to a cell having a priority. It will be appreciated that aspects and embodiments may define a means to manage an expected increase in size of an NCL in HetNet deployments without a need to significantly increase user equipment complexity to meet measurement performance requirements.

A method of influencing operation of user equipment in a wireless telecommunications network, a computer program product and network control node operable to perform that method. The method comprises: providing user equipment with a neighbor cell list; selecting at least one priority criteria to be applied by user equipment to a cell included in said neighbor cell list; and communicating the selected priority criteria to user equipment, determining an action to be taken by user equipment in relation to a cell meeting said priority criteria and communicating said action to user equipment and wherein the action comprises: a measurement performance requirement to be applied in relation to a cell having a priority. It will be appreciated that aspects and embodiments may define a means to manage an expected increase in size of an NCL in HetNet deployments without a need to significantly increase user equipment complexity to meet measurement performance requirements.