Enhanced coexistence beacon protocol (ecbp) for precise intercell synchronization of overlapping wireless base stations

Abstract

A method for synchronizing overlapping cells covered by different base stations include obtaining a propagation delay between a first base station and a second base station, scheduling by the first base station a selected one of first users located in a first cell covered by the first base station to transmit a first data packet which is a part of a transmission data frame, transmitting at the selected one the first users a transmission offset indicating the difference in a time domain between the beginning of the transmission data frame and the first data packet, in response to the reception of the first data packet, recording a reception offset at a selected one of second users located in a second cell covered by the second base station, the reception offset indicating the difference in time domain between the beginning of a reception data frame and the first data packet, transmitting at the selected one of the second users the reception offset to 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 cell and the second cell based upon the calculated frame slide.