Method and an apparatus for synchronization among the neighboring base stations in the wireless communication system

• US 8,730,937 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2007
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Yonggang, Hu, Zhongji, Chen, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): PASIA, REDENTOR M
• Application Number:
  US12/376,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20100296491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,500 Days
• Field of Search: 370/278, 370/280, 370/282, 370/324, 370336-337, 370/350, 370/395.62, 370/503, 370507-510, 375/356
• US Class Current: 370/350
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0638 Clock or time synchronisation among nodes; Internode synchronisation synchronization for ring networks H04L12/422; data switching networks with synchronous transmission H04L12/43
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0682 by delay compensation, e.g. by compensation of propagation delay or variations thereof, by ranging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for performing synchronization among neighboring base stations in the wireless communication network. According to the technical solution of the present invention, a base station turns off a transmitter randomly to receive a synchronization signal from neighboring base stations, and obtains a new local synchronization reference time based on the synchronization reference time of other neighboring base station. With the apparatus and the method provided by the present invention, the strongly robust synchronization among base stations is realized.

Claims

1. A method, in a synchronization apparatus of a synchronization dedicated base station of a wireless communication network, for performing synchronization based on synchronization signals from one or more neighboring network devices, comprising:

a. turning off a transmitter for a predefined time slot at one or more random moments within each downstream synchronization cycle;

b. within the predefined time slot, receiving the synchronization signals from the one or more neighboring network devices via synchronization related channels, wherein the synchronization signals comprise synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices; and

c. determining local synchronization reference information based on the synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices and on pre-stored signal transmission related information;

detecting the received synchronization signals from the one or more neighboring network devices and determining a synchronization signal from the synchronization dedicated base station; and

c1′

. determining the local synchronization reference information based on the pre-stored signal transmission related information and the determined synchronization reference information in the synchronization signal from the synchronization dedicated base station.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

a1. determining the one or more random moments within each downstream synchronization cycle;

a2. turning off the transmitter for a predefined time slot when the random moment arrives.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

c1;

from the received synchronization signals from the one or more neighboring network devices, obtaining the synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices;

c2;

adding the obtained synchronization reference information to the pre-stored signal transmission related information so as to determine the synchronization reference information of the network device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal transmission related information comprises:

signal spatial transmission delay between the synchronization dedicated base station and the one or more neighboring network devices.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the synchronization related channels comprise:

downstream pilot channels and synchronization channels.

6. A synchronization apparatus, in a synchronization dedicated base station of a wireless communication network, for performing synchronization based on synchronization signals from one or more neighboring network devices, comprising:

a controller processor configured to turn off a transmitter for a predefined time slot at one or more random moments within each downstream synchronization cycle;

a receiver configured to, within the predefined time slot, receive the synchronization signals from the one or more neighboring network devices via synchronization related channels, wherein the synchronization signals comprise synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices;

a synchronization processor configured to determine local synchronization reference information based on pre-stored signal transmission related information and the synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices; and

a detector configured to detect the received synchronization signals from the one or more neighboring network devices and determining the synchronization signal from the synchronization dedicated base station;

the synchronization processor being further configured to determine local synchronization reference information based on pre-stored signal transmission related information and the synchronization reference information obtained from the synchronization signal of the synchronization dedicated base station.

7. The synchronization apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, the controller processor is further configured to:

execute a random generator configured to determine the one or more random moments within each downstream synchronization cycle; and

turn off the transmitter for a predefined time slot when the random moment arrives.

8. The synchronization apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, the synchronization processor is further configured to:

execute an obtaining module configured to obtain the synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices from the received synchronization signals from the one or more neighboring network devices;

execute a calculating module configured to add the obtained synchronization reference information of the one or more neighboring network devices to the pre-stored signal transmission related information so as to determine the local synchronization reference information.

9. The synchronization apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the signal transmission related information comprises:

signal spatial transmission delay between the synchronization dedicated base station and the one or more neighboring network devices.

10. The synchronization apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the synchronization related channels comprise:

downstream pilot channels and synchronization channels.