Patent ID: 8274947

Claim:
A method for providing a timing reference to a femto base station (Femto BS) in wireless communications in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, comprising: operating a CDMA Mobile Station (MS) receiver in the Femto BS to provide receiving functions in the Femto BS; using the CDMA MS receiver to search and acquire CDMA signals from adjacent cells on at least one CDMA channel in one frequency band; selecting a CDMA signal from the adjacent cells with Pilot Pseudorandom Noise (PN) Offset of an earliest timing shift to be a timing reference for the Femto BS; operating the Femto BS to monitor the CDMA signals from adjacent cells in the CDMA network to update the timing reference; supporting a handoff between cells in the CDMA network and the Femto BS using a virtual Femto BS at a position different from an actual location of the Femto BS by a distance equal to a transmission delay from base station of the cell having the earliest timing shift; and using the Femto BS to provide timing reference relay so that the Femto BS and one or more other femto base stations form a timing reference network that is synchronized to a single timing source.