Patent ID: 7626974

Claim:
A method of optimizing the timing offsets with which data frames are transmitted over the Iur/Iub interfaces of a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, UTRAN, the method comprising: for a given Iur/Iub interface or set of Iur/Iub interfaces over which identical user plane data is to be sent, defining a duration of a data frame receiving window for use by the receiving node(s); transmitting data frames from a sending node with an initial timing offset; reducing the timing offset at the sending node in a stepwise manner using a relatively small step value α; and adjusting the timing offset at the sending node by increasing the timing offset using a relatively large adjustment value β in response to the receipt of one or more late time of arrival error reports at the sending node, wherein the relatively small step value α is smaller than the relatively large adjustment value β, and wherein β=kα and k is a constant greater than 1.