Patent ID: 7903540

Claim:
In a wireless communications network comprising a plurality of Base Stations each operative to provide MBS to mobile subscribers, a method for synchronizing the transmission of multicasting/broadcasting services (MBS) data by said plurality of Base Stations comprising the steps of: (i) providing a first pre-determined time interval; (ii) providing synchronization information to enable all of said plurality of Base Stations to start transmitting MBS data at a synchronized starting time point; at each of said plurality of Base Stations: (iii) receiving MBS data to be transmitted by all of said plurality of Base Stations; (iv) determining whether any of the MBS data has not been properly received, and upon determining the existence of such faulty MBS data, initiating by the respective one or more Base Stations a process to recover said faulty MBS data or to obtain within said first pre-determined time interval, information regarding the duration of a time period that would have been required for transmission of the faulty MBS data; (v) for any of the respective one or more Base Stations that has not recovered said faulty MBS data, determining a starting point of a silence period which would proceed the last data that has been properly received at the respective Base Station and the duration of said silence period based on the information obtained by said respective Base Station; (vi) transmitting available MBS data, starting at the synchronized starting time point and for the duration of a second pre-determined time interval, and wherein each of said respective one or more Base Stations that has not recovered the faulty MBS data shall refrain during said silence period from transmitting any signals along a communication channel allocated for transmission of MBS data.