An interference-based metric is used for control purposes in a cellular network, e.g., for controlling association of a user equipment to a cell of the cellular network. The metric is defined as a ratio of a first value and a second value. The first value represents the strength of a reference signal (RS) transmitted by a base station of the cell as measured by the user equipment. The second value represents the strength of interference (IF) at the user equipment. Depending on the metric, a radio access configuration for the user equipment and the cell is controlled. This may for example involve association of the user equipment to the cell, e.g., in the course of a handover process or idle mode cell selection process.