Importance

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Abstract

A system of the subject invention includes a mobile telecommunications switching office (MTSO), several base stations and mobile units. The base stations serve respective sectors or cells to establish radio communications with mobile units in their sectors or cells. The base stations are connected to the MTSO which performs switching to establish call connections between mobile units and/or between units served by an external network to which the MTSO is connected. The MTSO uses dynamic channel allocation to designate base stations to serve a call connection in active mode and in standby mode for a particular channel. Therefore, if communication with the base station serving a call connection in active mode is disrupted by a building, terrain or an equipment failure, for example, the MTSO can set the base station currently in active mode to standby mode, and can set the base station currently in standby mode, to active mode to serve the call connection on the channel. Thus, the use of sectors or cells in active and standby modes, allows for relatively reliable communications through macro-diversity. Also, the ping-pong effect occurs relatively infrequently because the sectors or cells are switched between active and standby modes as a mobile unit moves along a sector or cell boundary, rather than requiring a handoff to another channel as required in conventional systems. Further, through use of dynamic channel allocation, handoffs in the traditional sense are relatively rare in the system of the subject invention.

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First Claim