Abstract: The invention is directed towards determining whether a hard handover should be performed of a mobile station (48) in relation to a first group of cells (16, 18, 20, 24) including a number of active cells (16, 18, 20) and handled by a first cell handling device (10) to a second group of cells (32, 36, 38) handled by a second cell handling device (26), when the cell handling devices lack a direct communication link (lur). Either the first cell handling device or the mobile station obtains measurements of link quality between the mobile station and cells of the groups, determines a first and second total quality factor for the groups, performs an evaluation of a preferred group involving comparing the first total quality factor with the second quality factor and initiates a handover from the first group to the second group if the second group is preferred.

Abstract: The invention is directed towards determining whether a hard handover should be performed of a mobile station (48) in relation to a first group of cells (16, 18, 20, 24) including a number of active cells (16, 18, 20) and handled by a first cell handling device (10) to a second group of cells (32, 36, 38) handled by a second cell handling device (26), when the cell handling devices lack a direct communication link (lur). Either the first cell handling device or the mobile station obtains measurements of link quality between the mobile station and cells of the groups, determines a first and second total quality factor for the groups, performs an evaluation of a preferred group involving comparing the first total quality factor with the second quality factor and initiates a handover from the first group to the second group if the second group is preferred.

Abstract: Several mobile assisted handoff methods for use in the cellular communication system comprising a plurality of cells are disclosed. First, the quality level of a cell a mobile station is presently using is measured to determine whether the quality level is above or below a threshold. If the quality level is below the threshold, a primary list of cells is assigned to the mobile station, whereas if the quality level is above the threshold, a secondary list of cells is assigned to the mobile station. The quality level of each of the assigned cells is then measured by the mobile station and reported to the communication system.

Abstract: A method for optimizing the use of channels, the changing of channels and handover procedures in a mobile telecommunications system for instance, wherein parameters belonging to the mobile telecommunications system generate the load values for the connections via different channels/base stations between subscribers in a public telephone network and mobile stations in the mobile telecommunications systems. Different kinds of parameters can be compared directly by means of the load values which are combined to provide a total load value for each connection. A first total load value is generated for a connection set-up between one of the subscribers and one of the mobile stations. The total load values for the connection are estimated for alternative channels/base stations and these total load values are compared with the first total load value. The system changes to the channel/base station that has the most favorable load value, on the basis of the comparison.

Abstract: A cellular mobile radiotelephone system listens for call accesses on a control channel of an umbrella cell and on a control channel of a microcell located within said umbrella cell and responds to the call access only on the control channel of the umbrella cell. More particularly, the microcells within a particular umbrella cell are provided with listen-only control channel at the same frequency as the uplink control channel of the umbrella cell. An umbrella cell and one or several of its microcells may therefore each receive the same call accesses. During call access, the umbrella cell and each of the microcells determines the strength of the received signal and forwards this information to the system. The system selects the most appropriate cell out of the umbrella cell and the microcells to handle the call and causes the umbrella cell to respond to the call access on its downlink control channel.