Patent ID: 8446893

Claim:
A method for synchronizing overlapping cells, the method comprising: receiving, from a first customer premise equipment (CPE), a first data packet and a transmission offset indicating the difference in a time domain between the beginning of a transmission data frame and the first data packet, wherein the first CPE is located in a first cell covered by a first base station; receiving, from a second CPE located in a second cell covered by a second base station, a reception offset recorded in response to the reception of the first data packet and indicating the difference in time domain between the beginning of a frame at the second base station and the first data packet, the second CPE different than and physically separated from the first CPE; obtaining a propagation delay between the first CPE served by the first base station and the second CPE served by the second base station; calculating, at the second base station, a frame slide by adding the transmission offset and the propagation delay, and subtracting the reception offset; and synchronizing the first base station and the second base station based upon the calculated frame slide, wherein the obtaining of the propagation delay between the first CPE and the second CPE comprises: receiving, from the first CPE, a second data packet carrying information regarding the geographical location of the first CPE; and receiving, from the second CPE, the propagation delay of the first data packet calculated in response to reception of the second data packet based on the information regarding the location of the first CPE.