Radio communications systems and methods for jittered beacon transmission

摘要

Radio beacon transmission between a private radio communications base station and a mobile terminal within the transmission range of the private radio communications base station designed to prevent interference with overlapping uncoordinated private radio communications networks is provided by jittered beacon transmission. The private base station transmits radio beacon bursts at jittered time intervals, which vary pseudo-randomly to prevent repeated radio beacon collisions between uncoordinated private radio communications networks with overlapping transmission ranges. The beacon time jittering is performed pseudo-randomly in a pattern which is associated with a base station identification value. The mobile terminal derives the base station associated identification value and status information from a received radio beacon and determines if the base station is available for communications with the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal further synchronizes with the jittered base station beacon transmissions based on the pre-determined jitter generation function associated with the base station identification value derived from the received radio beacon. The mobile terminal is thereby able to readily maintain synchronization with one or more private radio communications network base stations without losing synchronization due to repeated radio beacon burst collisions between the base stations.