Patent ID: 7092353

Claim:
A method of operating a plurality of base stations in a communication system, said plurality of base stations including at least a first and a second base station located in different geographic regions, said first base station using a first frequency band, said second base station using a second frequency band which is different from said first frequency band, the method comprising: operating a first base station transmitter located at said first base station to transmit a plurality of beacon signals during a first time period, said plurality of beacon signals including a beacon signal of a first type and a beacon signal of a second type, said first time period including a fixed number of non-overlapping second time intervals, said step of operating a first base station transmitter to transmit including: transmitting at least one beacon signal within said first frequency band in each of said second time periods, beacon signals of different types being transmitted on different tones within said first frequency band, a beacon signal of said first type and a beacon signal of said second type being transmitted at least once during said first time period, beacon signals of the first type having at least 10 times the average per tone signal energy of signal tones used to transmit user data during said first time period; and operating a second base station transmitter located at the second base station to transmit a second plurality of beacon signals during a third time period, said plurality of beacon signals including a beacon signal of said first type and a beacon signal of said second type, said third time period including a fixed number of non-overlapping fourth time periods, said step of operating a second base station transmitter to transmit including: transmitting at least one beacon signal within said second frequency band in each of said fourth time periods, beacons of different types being transmitted on different tones within said second frequency band, a beacon signal of said first type, and a beacon signal of said second type being transmitted at least once during said third time period.