RESOURCE UTILISATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT FREQUENCY BANDS BY COMPENSATING HANDOVER PARAMETER VALUES WITH A FREQUENCY BAND PREFERENCE PARAMETER

摘要

The invention relates to a cellular communication system comprising a plurality of frequency bands. A Central frequency band processor (317) located at a Base Station Controller (BSC) (303) determines a preferred frequency and sets a frequency band preference parameter accordingly. The frequency band preference parameter is communicated to a plurality of base stations (305, 307, 309). Each base station has a handover controller (311) which determines handover parameters for a plurality of candidate cells for a handover of a subscriber unit. The handover parameter values associated with the first frequency are compensated by the frequency band preference parameter, and the handover controller (311 reorders the candidates accordingly. A target handover candidate is then determined from the reordered list. The invention is particularly applicable to a GSM cellular communication system.