WIRELESS LAN AP SEARCHING METHOD FOR VERTICAL HANDOFF TO A WIRELESS LAN IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATION NETWORK AND A COMPACT, MOBILE COMMUNICATION BASE STATION BEACON APPARATUS THEREFOR

摘要

The present invention relates to a method for accurately detecting an available wireless local area network access point (LAN AP) through a typical procedure for searching for an adjacent mobile communication base station, wherein the procedure uses a beacon of a mobile communication base station which transmits a signal from a compact beacon apparatus of a mobile communication base station having identical coverage as that of a wireless LAN AP, instead of a terminal directly searching for a beacon signal of a wireless LAN AP, and relates to a compact beacon apparatus of a mobile communication base station for the method. According to the present invention, the existence of the wireless LAN AP can be determined through the procedure for searching for an adjacent base station in a mobile communication network, thus preventing the waste of wireless resources as compared with conventional methods for searching for a wireless LAN AP. Further, according to the present invention, vertical handoff to a wireless LAN AP may be performed in a stable manner, thus minimizing power consumption in a terminal and also preventing handoff delay to thereby provide high quality service.