Patent ID: 7751838

Claim:
A mobile station comprising: means for receiving from a plurality of base stations, a signal on a Single System Synchronization Channel (SSCH) that is uniform and synchronized across an entire wireless multi-cellular telecommunication system, said signal including initial frequency and time synchronization information transmitted from all base stations in the telecommunication system; means for synchronizing to the SSCH utilizing macro-diversity combining of the signals received from the plurality of the base stations; means for receiving from the plurality of base stations, a pilot pattern and control messages on a System Broadcast Control Channel (SBCCH) that is uniform across the entire wireless multi-cellular telecommunication system, wherein the pilot pattern is common to all cells in the system, and the control messages include modulated SBCCH control information common to all cells in the system; and means for utilizing the entire received signal strength of the pilot pattern to obtain a channel estimate and to demodulate the SBCCH control information.