Cellular system hand-off protocol

摘要

A cellular communication system hand-off protocol which helps minimize down time associated with a mobile device roaming among different cells in which different cells employ different communication channels (e.g., different frequency hopping sequences). In a preferred embodiment, each base station is configured to communicate its own particular hopping sequence to all other base stations via the system backbone. Each base station then provides to mobile devices which are registered thereto information regarding the particular hopping sequences employed by other base stations servicing cells into which the mobile device may roam. Such information includes the particular hopping sequences together with an indication of what location in the sequence the base stations are currently at in any given time. In addition, such information may include an indication of the intervals at which a base station is configured to transmit a beacon packet (for passive scanning operation), or at what intervals test pattern packets are transmitted to allow for signal quality evaluation.