CELLULAR RADIOTELEPHONE SYSTEMS AND METHODS THAT BROADCAST A COMMON CONTROL CHANNEL OVER MULTIPLE RADIO FREQUENCIES

摘要

Cellular radiotelephone systems and methods communicate with cellular radiotelephones via multiple base stations. Radiotelephone traffic channels are used by the base stations for radiotelephone communications with the telephones. A common control channel is transmitted by the base stations, to control radiotelephone communications with the radiotelephones over the radiotelephone traffic channels. The common control channel is transmitted by a first one of the base stations over a first radio frequency and is transmitted by a second one of the base stations over a second radio frequency that is different from the first radio frequency. By providing a common control channel, excess control channel capacity can be reduced, thereby conserving control channel radio spectrum. Moreover, by transmitting the common control channel using multiple radio frequencies, the radio frequencies can be selected to reduce and preferably eliminate interference.