Techniques are provided to allow more than a fixed number of radio access point devices to be deployed within a macro cell. At a controller apparatus, a registration request is received from a radio access point device configured to operate in a wireless network to serve one or more wireless client devices in the wireless network in respective relatively small coverage areas. The registration request comprises a macro cell identifier associated with a macro cell base station configured to operate in the wireless network to serve one or more wireless client devices in a relatively large coverage area, a radio access point cell identifier associated with the radio access point device, and a particular primary scrambling code selected for use by the radio access point device. When the particular primary scrambling code is not available for use, methods are provided to allocate it in a shared manner but without degrading handover service.