Patent ID: 7277709

Claim:
A cellular communications system for carrying out a site selection diversity method, the system comprising: a user equipment comprising a processor operable periodically to select a cell for data transmission from a plurality of cells, and a transmitter operable to transmit a result of the selection to a base station; and a plurality of base stations, each of which comprises a receiver operable to receive a result of a selection, a transmitter operable to transmit data to the user equipment, and a controller operable to determine whether or not the base station is a selected base station and to delay the transmission of data from the base station to the user equipment, when the base station is the selected base station for the user equipment and a measure of a congestion level in the cell is above a certain threshold, until the measure of the congestion level in the cell is below the certain threshold; wherein the processor in the user equipment is operable to select a cell for data transmission based on measures of congestion levels in the cells.