Base Station Time Synchronisation via Mobile Terminal Mediation
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Solution Overview
Problem
In mobile communications networks, especially in indoor environments, small cells often fail to achieve accurate timing phase synchronization due to the limitations of DSL backhaul technology and the lack of overlap between coverage areas, leading to potential interference and instability in handover processes.
Innovation Solution
A method where a mobile terminal receives and stores synchronization data from a first base station and transmits it to a second base station when it moves out of the first base station's coverage area, allowing the second base station to derive a new reference time and synchronize itself, even if the areas do not overlap, with a predetermined fraction of the time difference used to adjust the synchronization data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If base stations rely on DSL backhaul for synchronization, then deployment flexibility and ease of installation are improved, but timing phase synchronization accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces mobile terminals as intermediary carriers to transmit synchronization data between base stations. Instead of relying on the inaccurate DSL backhaul for synchronization, base stations use mobile terminals that have received accurate timing information from GPS or other synchronization sources as mediators to propagate synchronization data across the network, thereby achieving accurate timing phase synchronization while maintaining DSL backhaul deployment flexibility
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary synchronization by having base stations pre-acquire synchronization data from GPS or other external synchronization sources before actual operation. This preliminary action ensures that when base stations communicate with mobile terminals, they already possess accurate timing information, allowing them to maintain precise timing phase synchronization even while using DSL backhaul for data transmission
2Adaptability or versatility
If base stations operate in isolated coverage areas without overlap, then network coverage flexibility is improved, but synchronization reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses mobile terminals as mediators to bridge synchronization between isolated base stations. When a mobile terminal moves between coverage areas of isolated base stations, it carries synchronization data from one base station to another, enabling synchronization propagation even when base stations have no direct communication path or overlapping coverage, thus maintaining synchronization reliability while allowing isolated coverage deployment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent ensures continuous synchronization propagation through mobile terminals that continuously carry and update synchronization data as they move between base stations. This continuous action of synchronization data transmission via mobile terminals maintains synchronization reliability across the network even when base stations operate in isolated coverage areas without direct overlap
3Measurement precision
If base stations continuously update synchronization data, then synchronization accuracy is improved, but network stability deteriorates due to frequent changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where base stations monitor the quality and source of received synchronization data from mobile terminals. Before applying synchronization updates, base stations evaluate whether the incoming data improves upon existing synchronization accuracy. This feedback-based selective updating ensures synchronization accuracy improves only when genuinely better data is received, while rejecting unnecessary or degrading updates, thus maintaining network stability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial updating by selectively applying only the necessary portion of synchronization updates from mobile terminals. Rather than blindly accepting all incoming synchronization data, base stations apply updates only when they represent genuine improvements in synchronization accuracy, performing partial actions rather than complete updates, thereby improving accuracy while avoiding excessive changes that would destabilize the network
Data Source
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AI summary
The operation of base stations (300a, 300b) in a wireless network whose areas of coverage do not overlap are synchronised by taking timing values from mobile units (400) that travel from one area of coverage to another. A base station (300b) receiving a timing value from a mobile unit entering its area of coverage adapts (10) its timing value and that of any mobile units in its coverage area, including the newly-arrived mobile unit, to a become a value intermediate between its existing timing value and that indicated by the mobile unit. The use of an intermediate value instability in the system that might result from an inability of the base stations to communicate directly with each other in real time.