A method uses inter-base station control messages to provide neighbor base station information to mobile subscriber stations in a mobile communication system. The method includes obtaining (S414, S415), at a serving base station, physical channel information of neighbor base stations over a backbone network via, either directly or via a server; periodically transmitting (S417) the obtained physical channel information from the serving base station to a mobile subscriber station connected to the serving base station; and measuring, based on the updated physical channel information, signal quality of the at least one neighbor base station at the mobile subscriber station. Thus, the serving base station receives from the neighbor base stations the inter-base station control messages containing the neighbor base station information, updates the information, and provides the updated information to the corresponding mobile subscriber station(s), to be used for a specific purpose such as handover or network entry. |