Patent ID: 8036137

Claim:
A method performed in a time division duplex (TDD) radio communication system in which information is communicated between a first node and a second node in a context of a data frame that includes a plurality of slots, wherein each slot corresponds to a time slice within a duration of the data frame, and the method comprises the steps of: applying, by the second node, an adjustment to an alignment between a second node transmit clock and a second node receive clock, wherein the adjustment is a time interval that corresponds with an integer number of slots, wherein the integer number of slots is a number up to a total number of slots in the data frame, the total number of slots in the data frame includes a fixed number of multiple transmit slots and a fixed number of multiple receive slots, each of the transmit slots and the receive slots has a slot duration, the integer number of slots is mathematically determined based on dividing a propagation delay for radio signals exchanged between the first node and the second node by the slot duration, and wherein the alignment between the second node transmit clock and the second node receive clock ensures that second node receive slots of the data frame and second node transmit slots of the data frame are non-overlapping with each other in time, and that the second node will operate in a half-duplex mode of operation; transmitting, by the second node, a second node transmit burst during the second node transmit slots; and receiving, by the second node, a first node transmit burst from the first node during the second node receive slots.