Patent ID: 8626176

Claim:
A method of deriving reference timing information for a femto cell of a cellular wireless communication system, the cellular wireless communication system comprising a plurality of macro cells and a plurality of wireless communication units, the method comprising, at a network element within the wireless cellular communication network: receiving observed timing data for a femto cell within a macro cell, and receiving observed timing data for the macro cell, from at least one wireless communication unit; determining observed timing difference values, based at least partly on the observed timing data; arranging the observed timing difference values into at least one set of observed timing difference values for the femto cell, in accordance with geographical location information corresponding to the observed timing difference values; determining a central reference timing difference value for each set of observed timing difference values, and thereby for the femto cell; and setting reference timing information for the femto cell, in accordance with the determined central reference timing difference value for each set of observed timing difference values.