Patent ID: 8731573

Claim:
A method of operating two or more base stations that serve respective cells in a cellular communication system, the method comprising: a) determining a candidate allocation pattern of a plurality of primary and secondary synchronization signal sequences for a candidate set of two or more cells that includes the cells served by the base stations; b) applying a performance metric to the candidate allocation pattern to ascertain a performance indicator for the candidate allocation pattern, wherein the performance indicator indicates a quality of positioning performance for the candidate set of two or more cells; c) ascertaining whether the performance indicator satisfies a predetermined relationship with a threshold performance value for the candidate set of two or more cells; d) if the performance indicator satisfies the predetermined relationship with the threshold performance value for the candidate set of two or more cells, then supplying the plurality of primary and secondary synchronization signal sequences to respective ones of base stations corresponding to the two or more cells in accordance with the candidate allocation pattern, and causing each of the two or more base stations to transmit the supplied primary and secondary synchronization signal sequences; and e) if the performance indicator does not satisfy the predetermined relationship with the threshold performance value for the candidate set of two or more cells, then changing the candidate allocation pattern of primary and secondary synchronization signal sequences for the candidate set of two or more cells that includes the cells served by the base stations, and repeating steps b) and c).