Patent ID: 8855044

Claim:
A method comprising: scanning, by the mobile station, synchronization channel preambles transmitted by neighboring base stations, wherein the neighboring base stations comprise a first femto/pico base station, and a second, macro base station, where the second base station's cell overlaps the first base station's cell; establishing downlink synchronization with the first base station; determining, by the mobile station, whether the neighboring base station is a femto/pico base station or macro base station, wherein, when the neighboring base station is a femto/pico base station deriving uplink (UL) transmission timing advance offset information via system information broadcast, and wherein the timing advance offset information is determined based on at least frequency bands of the first base station and the second base station; adjusting an UL transmission timing based on the received UL transmission timing advance offset information for the first base station, wherein the UL transmission timing advance offset information indicates a round-trip propagation time of radio signals between the first base station and the second base station; sending ranging signal or reference signal for initial access or handover to the first femto/pico base station using the adjusted UL transmission timing via a unified synchronous ranging channel wherein a normal cyclic prefix (CP) length that equals to a CP length of a data channel is used; and performing UL synchronization and UL access with the first base station.