Disclosed is a small cell discovery method, the method including: a base station of the current service cell receives a physical cell identifier and a status parameter transmitted by a base station of a non-service cell adjacent to the current service cell, the status parameter being used to indicate a mode of transmitting an air interface signal by the base station of the non-service cell; the base station of the current service cell transmits the physical cell identifier and the status parameter to a user equipment. Also, disclosed are a base station, a user equipment and a small cell discovery system.