| 摘要 |
A cellular communications system comprises a plurality of base stations serving respective system cells, each base station being capable of communicating with a plurality of mobile terminals within its cell and with at least some mobile terminals in adjacent system cells. Where connection of a mobile terminal to one of the base stations demands the downloading of information that, combined with data already being handled by that base station, would place excessive load on the data-handling capability of the base station, the data transmission is shared by that base station and at least one other. By this means, a call requesting the downloading of significant amounts of data, placed by a mobile terminal upon a base station that is already heavily loaded with data transmissions to other mobile terminals, is dealt with in parallel by two or more base stations, so that individual base loading is substantially reduced. It is preferred that the amount of data transmitted to the mobile terminal by each of the base stations involved takes account of the existing load applied to the individual base stations, so that more lightly-used base stations can be made to bear the brunt of the heavy demand from the new mobile terminal. It is also preferred that the data be coordinated by one or more of the base stations in order to ensure its cohesive transmission.
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