Patent ID: 6990348

Claim:
A method for self-configuring a wireless system during normal operation, said system including a plurality of cells, each cell including a respective base station and at least one mobile station, comprising the steps of: assigning preliminary control channels to base stations in a plurality of cells during an initialization phase; conducting normal traffic transmissions between base stations and mobile stations in each cell; isolating individual signals from base stations by time-sharing a calibration frequency assigned for use by consecutive cells during a scheduled interval; measuring a signal strength of the calibration frequency received at mobile stations within a cell and mobile stations nearby the cell from a base station within the cell during the scheduled interval and determining signal-to-interference ratios between the base station and the mobile stations as a communication quality metric; deriving improved channel re-use criteria from said signal-to-interference ratios; and selectively reassigning channels to the base station based on said improved re-use criteria.