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Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for facilitating the timing (e.g., the known relative timing differences) of base stations (BSs) in asynchronous CDMA mobile communications systems. A plurality of mobile stations (MSs) measure the relative time differences between various pairs of BSs, and these measurements are stored by the BSs. A source BS sends to an MS, in a neighbor list message, estimates of the relative time difference between the source BS and each of the BSs on the neighboring cell list. Each BS on the list can maintain a relative time difference estimate table, which can be updated continuously from the reports received from MSs. Subsequently, the BSs can send entries from this table to the MS in the neighbor list message. Using this novel technique, the BSs have known relative timing differences. Consequently, when the MS initiates a cell-search for a candidate BS, the MS already has an estimate of the timing of that BS as compared to its source BS. As such, the resulting cell-search procedure has a lower level of complexity and thus can be accomplished much quicker than with prior procedures. In addition, the relative time difference estimates can be compared with corresponding time differences that are measured by a second mobile station. Based on this comparison, the propagation delays of signals between the second MS and various BSs can be calculated to determine the position of the second MS.

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First Claim