Patent ID: 7043273

Claim:
A method of operating a base station included in a radio access network of a telecommunications system, the method comprising: (1) obtaining, respectively from two diversity antennas for a cell/carrier utilized in a sector served by the base station, two branches of an uplink radio link signal, the radio link signal being an unlink signal to the radio base station; (2) routing the two branches of the radio link signal through two respective branches of signal processing hardware subsequent to receipt of the two branches of the unlink radio link signal from the respective two diversity antennas; (3) using a rake receiver at the base station for measuring a delay difference between the two branches of the radio link signal; (4) using the delay difference to determine a delay alignment adjustment value for compensating for the delay difference between the two branches of the radio link signal; performing steps (1)–(3) with respect to radio link signals involved in plural calls with plural user equipment units; after step (3), determining an average of the plural delay difference values with respect to the plural cells; and as step (4), using the average delay difference to determine the delay adjustment value.