Femtocell hand-offs

1. A method of facilitating hand-offs between Femtocells, comprising the steps of:

receiving a message at a current serving Femtocell from a mobile station communicating with the current serving Femtocell, the message indicating that the mobile station detected a potential target Femtocell, the message including an indication of a cell identifying code of the detected Femtocell;

determining whether the cell identifying code corresponds to a known Femtocell;

using the detected Femtocell as a target Femtocell if the cell identifying, code corresponds to a known Femtocell and a successful hand-off was previously made from the serving Femtocell to the detected Femtocell; and

instigating a hand-off from the current serving Femtocell to the target Femtocell.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising

determining that the hand-off was successful; and

indicating an identity of the Femtocell to which the successful hand-off was made in a database used for subsequent determinations regarding target Femtocells.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising

maintaining a database of successful hand-offs between Femtocells including an indication of the Femtocells involved in each successful hand-off; and

consulting the database to determine whether a potential target Femtocell has successfully completed a hand-off from the serving Femtocell.

4. A method of facilitating hand-offs between Femtocells, comprising the steps of:

receiving a message at a current serving Femtocell from a mobile station communicating with the current serving Femtocell, the message indicating that the mobile station detected a potential target Femtocell, the message including an indication of a cell identifying code of the detected Femtocell;

determining whether the cell identifying code corresponds to a known Femtocell;

determining that there is more than one Femtocell corresponding to the cell identifying code or that no known Femtocell corresponds to the cell identifying code;

selecting a plurality of known Femtocells cells;

instructing each of the selected plurality of known Femtocells to attempt to detect the mobile station;

receiving a mobile detection indication from any of the selected Femtocells that detected the mobile station; and

instigating a hand-off from the serving Femtocell to the one of the selected Femtocells that provided the mobile detection indication.

5. The method of claim 4 , comprising

determining whether the instigated hand-off is successful; and

identifying the target Femtocell as one that successfully completed the hand-off from the serving Femtocell.

6. The method of claim 5 , comprising

storing information regarding the Femtocell successfully completing the hand-off from the serving Femtocell.

7. A device for facilitating hand-offs between Femtocells, comprising:

a hand-off application server configured to

receive a message at a current serving Femtocell from a mobile station communicating with the current serving Femtocell, the message indicating that the mobile station detected a potential target Femtocell, the message including an indication of a cell identifying code of the detected Femtocell;

determine whether the cell identifying code corresponds to a known Femtocell;

use the detected Femtocell as a target Femtocell if the cell identifying code corresponds to a known Femtocell and a successful hand-off was previously made from the serving Femtocell to the detected Femtocell; and

instigate a hand-off from the current serving Femtocell to the target Femtocell.

8. The device of claim 7 , comprising

a database of successful hand-offs between Femtocells including an indication of the Femtocells involved in each successful hand-off.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the hand-off application server is configured to

determine that the hand-off was successful; and

indicate an identity of the Femtocell to which the successful hand-off was made in a database used for subsequent determinations regarding target Femtocells.

10. The device of claim 8 , wherein the hand-off application server is configured to consult the database to determine whether a potential target Femtocell has successfully completed a hand-off from the serving Femtocell.

11. A device for facilitating hand-offs between Femtocells comprising a hand-off application server that is configured to

determine that a message is received at a current serving Femtocell from a mobile station communicating with the current serving Femtocell, the message indicating that the mobile station detected a potential target Femtocell, the message including an indication of a cell identifying code of the detected Femtocell;

determine whether the cell identifying code corresponds to a known Femtocell;

determine that there is more than one Femtocell corresponding to the cell identifying code or that no known Femtocell corresponds to the cell identifying code;

select a plurality of known Femtocells;

instruct each of a selected plurality of known Femtocells to attempt to detect the mobile station;

determine that there is at least one mobile detection indication from any of the selected Femtocells that detected the mobile station; and

instigate a hand-off from the serving Femtocell to the one of the selected Femtocells that provided the mobile detection indication.

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the hand-off application server is configured to

determine whether the instigated hand-off is successful; and

identify the target Femtocell as one that successfully completed the hand-off from the serving Femtocell.

13. The device of claim 12 , wherein the hand-off application server is configured to

store information regarding the Femtocell successfully completing the hand-off from the serving Femtocell in the database.