Patent ID: 8634405

Claim:
A method for synchronizing phases and frequencies of devices in multi-user, wireless communications systems, comprising the steps of: transmitting a first beacon signal from a transmitter at a destination node in the wireless communications system to a plurality of source nodes in the wireless communications system; processing the first beacon signal at the plurality of source nodes to estimate local phases and frequencies at the plurality of source nodes; transmitting a second beacon signal from a first node of the plurality of source nodes to a second node of the plurality of source nodes; processing the second beacon signal at the second node of the plurality of source nodes to estimate local phases and frequencies at the second node; transmitting a third beacon signal from the second node to the first node; processing the third beacon signal at the first node to estimate local phases and frequencies at the first node; and simultaneously transmitting common information from the plurality of source nodes to the destination node at carrier frequencies based on the local phases and frequencies estimated by the plurality of source nodes, wherein phases and frequencies of transmitted common information are synchronized to facilitate coherent combining of common information at the destination node.