Carrier priority based automatic neighboring relation optimization

Exemplary apparatuses and methods are provided that address how to optimize automatic neighbor relations. Specifically, a base station receives measurements from a mobile terminal connected thereto. The base station determines neighbor relations from the received measurements that includes identifiers of other base stations in neighboring cells detected by the mobile terminal. The base station determines a number of communication links needed to exchange data with the other base stations. The base station prioritizes the neighbor relations from a lowest priority level to a highest priority level before a maximum number of communication links needed to exchange data is exceeded. The base station may delete neighbor relations with the lowest priority level from the base station's Neighbor Relation Table so that the base station can support new neighbor relations, more efficient hand-offs, and improve network performance. The base station may hand-off calls to base stations selected from the prioritized neighbor relations.