Patent ID: 7436813

Claim:
A method for acquiring time synchronization by a first base station in a broadband wireless access communication system including a plurality of base stations which include certain base stations having already acquired time synchronization and a first base station requiring acquisition of time synchronization, the method comprising the steps of: scanning neighbor base stations around the first base station and requesting time synchronization information from the scanned neighbor base stations by the first base station; receiving responses from predetermined neighbor base stations having already acquired time synchronization from among the neighbor base stations, the responses including time synchronization information of the predetermined neighbor base stations; and selecting a second base station from among the predetermined neighbor base stations and acquiring time synchronization based on the time synchronization information of the second base station; and rescanning neighbor base stations around the first base station at a predetermined time period and requesting time synchronization information from the rescanned neighbor base stations by the first base station, wherein the time synchronization information is information which indicates a current time point and serves as a reference when other BSs acquire the time synchronization.