Patent ID: 6449290
Filing Date: 2002-09-10
Classification: H04B,H04W

Abstract:
A method in a cellular radio communications system, which is arranged for communicating information in data frames (DF) of a predetermined duration (Tf) the system comprising at least one central node (RNC1, RNC2) and at least one asynchronous base station (BS1-BS5), for synchronizing all base stations (BS1, BS2) that are connected to one (RNC1) of the at least one central node (RNC1, RNC2) independently of any global time reference for the system, the method comprising the steps of:sending a system frame counter state (SFC) from the central node (RNC1) to all its connected base stations (BS1, BS2), the frame counter state being incremented one step for each of the data frames (DF); and aligning in each of the connected base stations (BS1, BS2) a state of a respective local frame counter (LFCBS1, LFCBS2) with the system frame counter state (SFC); wherein each of the data frames (DF) is associated with a specific frame number (t1(1)-t1(4), t2(1)-t2(4)) which is derived from the respective local frame counter (LFCBS1, LFCBS2).