FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The subject disclosure relates to enhancing automatic neighbor relations (ANR) over a network that supports dual connectivity (e.g., E-UTRAN New Radio (NR) Dual Connectivity (EN-DC)).

BACKGROUND

ANR is a self-optimization function for dynamic and automatic, real-time building and maintenance of neighbor lists (NLs) for a cell, without user intervention. ANR constantly maintains neighbor lists for a cell by identifying unaccounted-for neighbors based on user equipment (UE) reports on signal strengths of nearby cells, which facilitates handovers (HOs) and reduces dropped call rates that might occur due to missing neighbor relations, and simplifies handling of neighbor relations when new network nodes (e.g., eNodeBs (eNB s), gNodeBs (gNBs), etc.) are added to a network. ANR is useful in network roll-outs where sites are launched one at a time, since the function automatically adapts to the changing network topology.

