Patent ID: 7385953

Claim:
An apparatus for transmitting beacon signals over a cell site of a wireless communications network, the cell site being divided into at least a first sector α and a second sector β, the apparatus comprising: beacon signal logic configured to allocate at least a first beacon signal time slot t 1 to at least the first sector α and to allocate at least a second beacon signal time slot t 2 to the second sector β, wherein time slot t 2 occurs later in time than time slot t 1 ; a transmitter, the transmitter transmitting a first beacon signal on a first beacon signal frequency f 1 over the first sector α during the first beacon signal time slot t 1 and transmitting a second beacon signal on the first beacon signal frequency f 1 over the second sector β during time slot t 2 , wherein when the first beacon signal is being transmitted over the first sector α during time slot t 1 , the second beacon signal is not being transmitted over the second sector β and when the second beacon signal is being transmitted over the second sector β during time slot t 2 , the first beacon signal is not being transmitted over the first sector α; and a combining and distribution unit that combines the beacon signals being carried on frequency f 1 with at least one caller traffic signal being carried on at least one user carrier frequency f 4 , the transmitter transmitting the respective beacon signals along with the caller traffic signal over the respective cell site sectors.